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OFFICERS 



THE SHAKESPEARE SOCIETY 



OF NEW YORK. 

(1885.) 



APPLETON MORGAN, 
R. S. GUERNSEY, 
C. C. MARBLE, 
JAMES E. REYNOLDS, 
ALBERT R. FREY, 



- President. 

ist Vice-Prest. 

- Secretary. 
Treasurer. 
Librarian. 



The Shakespeare Society of New York, 



INCORPORATED APRIL 20, 1885. 




Co promote tf)e fenotole&se anS sttttip of t\)t SSRotfca 

of SISRnn i^akespeare, anfc tlje H>!)akc$perean 

anto ©iteafietjjan SDrama, 



V 7^3 



IN EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, 

JUNE 15, 1885. 



Resolved, That in order that the papers printed un- 
der authority of this Society may be of the highest 
character, and of value from all standpoints, the Socie- 
ty does not stand pledged as responsible for the opin- 
ions expressed or conclusions arrived at in the said 
papers, but considers itself only responsible in so far as 
it certifies by its Imprimatur that it considers them as 
original contributions to Shakespearean study, and as 
showing upon their face care, labor and research. 



Papers of tjte JQ. p. Shakespeare Society, Bo. 2. 



13l>tmS atttl %&8VLX$. 



A Study in Warwickshire Dialect. 



By APPLETON MORGAN. 



New York : 

THE SHAKESPEARE SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 

(Brentano Bros., New York, Washington and Chicago.) 

1885. 



# 



«*w 



Copyright, 1885. 
By the Shakespeare Society of New York. 



PREFACTORY. 



So long as the capital question of a Shakespeare 
Canon remains open, a discussion of the secondary ques- 
tion of the William Shakespeare authorship, whether 
considered as a whole (as is the method of the Baconian 
Society), or as to particular works or parts of works, (as 
conducted by Mr. Fleay in his admirable Shakespeare 
Manual and Mr. Rolfe in his invaluable Friendly Edi- 
tion), would seem to be proper. I, for one, am 
willing to confess that after many years of famili- 
arity with it, I regard the question as to what William 
Shakespeare wrote with his own pen, and what became 
his (to use Mr. R. G. White's language) "after the 
theatrical fashion and under the theatrical condi- 
tions of his day," as legitimate as it is fascinating 
— as one entitled to the fullest examination and treat- 
ment on purely historical grounds ; and as one which 
can not only be pursued to any extent without casting 
suspicion on the querists' loyalty or orthodoxy, but 
whose discussion is a contribution the more to the 
world's noble and ever magnifying Library of Shakes- 
peareana. 

Of course as to the results of these contributions, and 
the conclusions they compel, different minds will al- 
ways be affected differently. For example : While the 
statements made in the following pages do not prove 
anything, even prima facie, and, even, if conceded, are 
very far from demonstrating anything finally ; it is yet, 
it seems to me, worth while asking if they are, from any 
point of view, momentous enough to be entirely sup- 
pressed and carefully forgotten. In his Memoranda on 
the Tragedy of Hamlet (1879) Mr.Halliwell Phillipps re- 
marks : " Those who have lived as long as myself in 
the midst of Shakesperean criticism will be careful 
not to be too certain of anything." With such a cau- 
tion from so eminent and venerable an authority, most 
younger men will wish to keep alertly on their guard 
against foreclosing themselves. 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



PART I. 



THE POET. 

Everybody remembers the expressive dia- 
lect spoken by Mrs. Poyser (who is quite as 
real a personage as most of us, and who will 
live ages longer than any of us — seeing that 
she is one of the Immortals of George Eliot's 
immortal gallery). George Eliot lays the 
story, of which Mrs. Poyser is the undoubted 
masterpiece, in " Loamshire," — by which, of 
course, everybody recognizes Leicestershire. 
But u it must not be inferred, " says Dr. Se- 
bastian Evans of the English Dialect Society, 
that Mrs. Poyser and the rest of the charac- 
ters introduced (in Adam Bede) speak pure 
Leicestershire. They speak pure Warwick- 
shire ; and, although the two dialects natu- 
rally approximate very closely, they are far 
from being identical in pronunciation, gram- 
mar or vocabulary. The truth is that 
George Eliot was herself Warwickshire born, 
and used the dialect, in the midst of which 
she had been reared, for her Leicestershire 
characters; which was not much of a solecism 
seeing that the two had so many points of 
contact." 



8 VENUS AND ADONIS. 



But if the English George Eliot heard in 
her village among her neighbors in her youth 
was Warwickshire English, it could not have 
been a much purer speech that her young fel- 
low-shireman, William Shakespeare, heard in 
his day — almost three centuries earlier. There 
was not much of an Academy, not much of a 
cult, in Stratford town, to purify the burgh- 
er's patois in Shakespearean times. Nay, even 
up at the capital — in London — it was very 
little, if any, better than down in Warwick- 
shire. The members of Elizabeth's parlia- 
ment could not comprehend each other. This 
was long before there was any standing army 
in England. (Falstaff might have been 
marching through Coventry with his pressed 
men at about that time.) But when the sol- 
diers Elizabeth summoned were grouped in 
camps, they could not understand the word of 
command unless given by officers from their 
own particular shire. And — with Stratford 
grammar school, or any other grammar school 
in full blast — the urchins were not taught Eng- 
lish, rigorously as they might be drilled in 
Lily's Accidence, and in the three or four 
text books prescribed by the crown. Mr. 
Halliwell Phillipps and Mr. Furnivall — from 
opposite standpoints — have each given us a 
list of these text books. But amongst them 
all there is not one that suggests instruction 
in the mother tongue. That the aforesaid 
urchins were supposed to learn at home, if 
they learned it at all. And at home, as well as 
in this grammar school (now held sponsor for 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 9 

so much of the occult and elaborate intro- 
spection and learning of the Plays) it is ab- 
solutely impossible that the lad Shakespeare 
acquired or used any other dialect than the 
Warwickshire he was born to, or that his 
father and mother, their coetaneans, neigh- 
bors and gossips, spoke. For demonstration 
of this statement the credulous need not rely 
on the so-called Shakespearean epitaphs and 
lampoon on Sir Thomas Lucy with their dia- 
lect puns on the names of John a'Coombe 
(" John has come") and Lucy (" Lowsie ") 
[which were doubtless written by that worthy 
lunatic John Jordan, who so amply fooled — 
in his time — the ponderous Malone, Boswell, 
Ireland and their contemporaries], but are re- 
ferred to any competent chronicle of the 
times themselves. In fact, there is no con- 
verse to the proposition at all. It is as one- 
sided as a proposition in Euclid. 

When William Shakespeare, then at about 
eighteen, went up to London, he must have 
been, like Robert Burns — fluent in the dialect 
of his own vicinage. We know that when, 
later in his life, Robert Burns tried to aban- 
don the patois in which he had earned im- 
mortality, and to warble in urban English, 
"he was seldom" (says his most recent biog- 
rapher, Principal Shairp) " more than a third- 
rate, a common, clever versifier." In consid- 
ering the question whether William Shake- 
speare still continued to use the Warwickshire 
dialect or lost it in London, we must make up 
our minds to leave his plays out of the ques- 



10 VENUS AND ADONIS. 

tion. For, in the first place, a play is a play. 
It is the representation of many characters in 
a juxtaposition where the identity ot each 
must be exaggerated to preserve the perspec- 
tive, and to tell — within the hour — the story of 
days or years, as the case may be. And this 
perspective must be shaped by experiment, 
altered and amended by actual representation, 
made to fit the date,the circumstances,the play- 
er and the audience, and all this is the work of 
many hands and many brains. Except from the 
direct testimony of contemporaries or of an au- 
thor himself, therefore, to conclude that this or 
that author wrote himself into any one char- 
acter of any play, is, and always must be, 
purely and fancifully gratuitous. In the sec- 
ond place, the Shakespeare plays contain not 
only Warwickshire, but specimens of about 
every other known English dialect. And 
quite as much of any one as of any other. It 
is a statement not to be by any means left out 
of the Shakespeare authorship problem — this 
exact phenomena of the dialect. For the con- 
dition in life implied by a man's employment 
of one patois would seem to dispose of the 
probability of his possessing either the facili- 
ties or the inclination for acquiring a dozen 
others. The philologist or archaeologist may 
employ or amuse himself in collecting speci- 
mens of dialects and provincialisms. The 
proletarian, to whom any one of these dialects 
is native, will probably be found not to have 
that idea of either bread winning or of pas- 
time. But, in the plays where the Shakes- 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. \\ 

pearean character happens to be a Warwick- 
shirean, he will be found to speak that dialect, 
and not otherwise. 

There are a great many strange things about 
these plays. They make a classical Duke of 
Athens mention St. Valentine's day, and send 
a young girl to a nunnery — they have pages 
and king's fools figuring in Alcibiades' time. 
Pandarus speaks of Sunday and of Friday 
at the siege of Troy ; there are marks, guild- 
ers, ducats and allusions to Henry IV of 
France, to Adam, Noah and to Christians, in 
Ephesus in the time of Pericles ; a child is 
" baptised " in Titus Andronicus ; There are 
knaves, and queens and " trumps " and 
" graves in the Holy Churchyard" in Cleo- 
patra's capita], and there are always French- 
men and Spaniards in plenty for the audiences 
which expected them, whether the play were 
in Cypress or Epidamnium, or Pome or Ath- 
ens ; whether the days were ancient or con- 
temporary. France and Spain were the coun- 
tries with which England was oftenest at war, 
and which, therefore, it was most popular to 
disparage. The Frenchman and Spaniard 
were relied upon to make the groundlings roar 
again, pretty much as in New York to-day, we 
have a plantation negro or a " heathen 
Chinee," as indispensable for certain audien- 
ces. But, in these same plays, however a 
Roman or a Bohemian may use an English 
idiom, there is no confusion in the dialects 
when used as dialects, and not as vernacular. 
The Norfolk man does not talk Welsh, nor 



12 VENUS AND ADONIS. 

the Welshman, Leicestershire ; nor does the 
Warwickshire man use Welsh-English. Who- 
ever he was, the writer of those portions of 
the plays photographed his men and women 
out of the streets of London — at any rate, he 
photographed them from life. He did not 
need to take them — at least it is apparent that 
he did not take them — out of books at second 
hand, as he did his plots and situations. 

As to the Sonnets, which only appeared in 
1609, seven years before Shakespeare's death, 
when he had become rich and — perhaps, en- 
dowed with that culture which wealth can 
bring — may have used most unexceptionable 
urban, courtly and correct English, it is only 
honest to give them the benefit of the doubt 
expressed by Hallam and others, as to wheth- 
er the " Sonnets printed in 1609 were the 
' Sugred Sonnets among his private friends, "' 
of which Meres makes mention. At any rate, 
they are of no value in the present inquiry. 

Omitting everything else then, let us con- 
fine ourselves solely to the one poem, "Venus 
and Adonis," which its dedication declares to 
have been the very " first heir of " the " in- 
vention " of William Shakespeare ; that is to 
say, his very first literary work. 

In Appleton's Encyclopedia,article "Shakes- 
peare * " credited to the lamented Richard 
Grant White, Mr. White says : 

" In any case, we may be sure that the 
poem (Venus and Adonis), was written some 

*Vol. XIV, p. 550. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. lg 

years before it was printed ; and it may have 
been brought by the young poet from Strat- 
ford in manuscript, and read by a select cir- 
cle, according to the custom of the time, be- 
fore it was published." 

If William Shakespeare wrote the poem at 
all, it would seem as if Mr. White's proposi- 
tion is beyond question. It only remains to 
reconcile that proposition with the situation 
as we find it. Let us therefore ascertain what 
sort of a dialect Warwickshire dialect is. 

The annexed Glossary — while, of course, 
sharing the incompleteness of all dictionaries 
of current provincialisms — is at least quite 
complete enough to prove the existence of a 
Warwickshire Dialect to-day ; and, infcren- 
tially, what must have been the barbarisms of 
that Dialect three centuries ago. 



PART II. 



THE DIALECT. 

(H. added to a statement indicates that Mr. Halliwell Phillipp's 
lists of Archaic and Provincial words is therein referred to. L. 
refers to a paper " On Shakespeare's Provincialisms," in Shakes- 
peareana, for May, 1884. S. refers to Skeats' Etymological 
Dictionary. Large use has been made of Mrs. Francis's List of 
South Warwickshire words, published by the English Dialect 
Society.) 



16 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 


WARWICKSHIRE. 


A 




Abundance — See Plenty of 


Old. 


Abuse (Verb), 


Go on at — They do go on 
at me dreadfuls they 
abuse me dreadfully. 


Acquiescent — See Willing. 


Agreeable — I'm agreeable, 
= I acquiesce, I will do as 
you wish. 


Addition — t. e. the wing of 
a house, see Shed. 


Lean to. 


Adjacent — See Near. 




Ado — See Frequent, Plenty 
of, Abundance. 


Old. 


Afraid. 


Afeard. 


After. 


Arter. 


After Crop. 


Littlemath — That's little- 
math = that's the second 




crop of grass. 


Aftermath (of wheat). 


Tailwheat. 


Almost. 


A'most, or Welly — Welly 
nigh every winters al- 
most every winter. 


Always (habitually). 


Constant — He do it con- 
stants he does so always. 


Ample — See Roomy, Spa- 
cious. 


Roomthy. 


Annoy, 


Irk — He irks me = he an- 
noys or harrasses me. 
[Also in various other 
dialects. S.] 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 17 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



PLAYS. 



And yet it irks me. As you 
like it, II, i. It irks his 
heart, he cannot, I He?i?y 
VI, I, iv. It irks my 
very soul. 3 Henry VI, 
II, ii. 



18 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 


WARWICKSHIRE. 


Ankle, or Ankle joint. 


Ankley. 


Anticipate, see Foresee. 


Forecast. 


Anxious. 


Longful — I ha' been long- 




ful to see you again = I 




was anxious to see you 




again. 



Apple — see Wild Apple. Russet. 

Approach — to near in point, Going in. 
of time — see Reach. 

At — (at a certain point of Come — She'll be seven 

time). come Michelmass = she'll 

be seven at Michelmass. 

(Common to all dialects). 



At least. 

Awkward — see Clown. 

B 

Baker's Shovel. 



Least way-. 

Hocklin — He's a hocklin 
sort walker=He walks 
awkwardly. 



Peel — (The instrument or 
"slide'* upon which bread 
is taken from the oven.) 



Baby — Infant, small child. Little 'un. 

Banns. Asked outs — To be asked 

out = :o have the banns 
published three times. 

Beat (verb) — See Pound. Warm — I'll warm ye=ITl 
Whip. beat you. 

Beater — (An instrument to : Batlet — (Also in Sussex, L) 
beat clothes in washing.) j 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 19 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



PLAYS. 



A year and a quarter old 
come Philip. Measure 
for Measure, III, ii., and 
in many other places. 



As you like it, II. iv. 



20 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 


WARWICKSHIRE. 


Because. 






Along of — It was all along 
of that boy = it was all 
because of that boy. 


Begging. 






Thomassing — To go a 
" thomassing," is to go a 
begging for gifts (accord- 
ing to an old custom, on 
St. Thomas's day), and 
so, generally, to beg is 
to thorn as. 


Behaved. 






Conditioned — He's well 
conditioned = he's well 
behaved ; he's ill condi- 
tioned=:he's ill behaved. 


Behavior. 






Condition. 


Beehive. 






Beeskep. 


Belabor — To pound (which 
see.) 


Pun. 


Benighted— 


-See 


Delayed. 


Lated — (Common to sev- 
eral dialects, L.) 


Between. 






Atween. 


Bendweed — (The minor 
Convolvulus). 


Waiweind. 


Blackbird. 






Blackie. 


Blown — To lay 
wind or rain. 


corn by 


Lodge — The corn is 
lodged = the corn is laid. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 



21 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



Merchant of Venice ', III, ii. 
Timon of Athens, IV, ii. 



Two Gent, of Verona, III, 
ii. Much ado, III, ii, 
and very frequently in 
ihe plays. 



He would pun thee into 
shivers with his fist. 
Troillus and Cressidas, 
II, i. 

Macbeth, III, iii. 



Richard 'II, III, iii. 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 




WARWICKSHIRE. 


Boasting — Boastful. 




Crostering — He's a croster- 
ing fellow= He's a boast- 
ing fellow. 


Booby — See Clown. 






Borders. 




Adlands — Them's his ad- 
lands^ Those are the 
borders of his field. 


Bother — to harrass 
Annoy. 


— see 


Irk — [Also in several other 
dialects, S.] 


Bow — (A curtesy). 




Obedience-Make your obe- 
dience to the person = 
Bow (or drop a curtesy) 
to the parson. 


Bowlful. 




Joram. 


Breezy — See Gusty, Windy. 


Hurden. 


Bully — In the sense of to 
ruff, to chaff, to abuse — 
see Tease. 


Knag — Go on at ; They 
knag (or go on at) me 
so = they chaff (or bully" 
or ruff me. 


Bundle of Hay. 




Bottle of hay — [Also in 
Yorkshire and several 
other dialects, H.] 


Burden. 




Fardel — [Also in various 
other dialects, H. S.] 


Bushel. 




Scuttle — (More properly a 
basket that holds a bush- 
el.) 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT, 23 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



Midsummer N. £>., IV. I. 



Who would fardels bear, 
Hamlet, III, i. I heard 
them talk of a fard el, 
Winter's Tale, V, ii. 



24 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 



WARWICKSHIRE. 



Cake (Verb)— See Collect. \ Bolter. 



Cannot — See Not. 



Canna. 



Cap — Especially a child's. Biggin, 
cap. 



Caress (Verb). 

Carrion crow. 
Carry (Verb). 



Chaff (Verb). 



Celebrated. 



Chafinch. 
Chemise. 
Child. 
Chimney. 



Pitlier — (pid-hur) see she 
pither him = see her ca- 
ress him. 

Goarrin' crow. 

Help— I'll help it back to 
'un=ril carry it back to 
its owner. 



Go on at — They go on at me 
about going to church =r 
They chaff me about go- 
ing to church. 

Deadly-He's a deadly man 
for going to church= 
He's celebrated for go- 
ing to church (a great 
church-goer). 

Pink. 

Shimmy. 
Little 'un. 
Chimbley. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 25 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



Bolted by the northern, 
Winter's Tale IV,iii. So 
finely bolted didst thou 
seem, Henry, V, ii, 137. 



With homely biggin bound, 
2 Hen. IV, IV, iv. 



Help me away, Merty 
Wives of Windsor, III, 
iii, and perhaps very fre- 
quently in that sense 
distinguished from the 
ordinary one. 



Not now, sir, she's a dead- 
ly theme, Troillus and 
Cressida, IV, v ; The 
times' right deadly, Id. 
V, ii. 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 



Chimney-piece. 

Chirp (Verb). 
Clever. 

Clot (Verb) — see Collect. 

Clown — Ignoramus ; see 
Dunce ; Fool. 

Clover — See White Clover. 

Cock — (The male of any 
fowl). 

Commodious. 

Collect — To clock or cake, 
(verb). 

Complete. 

Completely. 
Confidence. 



WARWICKSHIRE. 



Shelf. 



Chelp. 

Fierce — That's a fierce 
little 'un = That's a clever 
baby. 

Bolter. 

Patch- Yawrups — Yer great 
Patch, or you great Yaw- 
rups = you booby, you 
clown. 



Tone. 

Roomthy. 

Bolter — The snow bolters 
i' his hoof = the snow 
cakes or collects in the 
horse's hoof. 

Slow. 



Slow — He turned it slow 
over=He overturned it 
completely. 

Heart — He ain't no heart 
init=:He has no confi- 
dence in it ; also used in 
the sense of quality as 
" there ain't no heart in 
the land " = this land is 
good for nothing. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 



27 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



(Perhaps) in Hamlet, III, 
iv ; from the shelf the 
precious diadem stole. 



Thou scurvy patch, Temp- 
est III, ii ; capon, cox- 
comb, idiot, patch, Com- 
edy of Errors ■, III, i. 



Blood boltered, Macbeth, 
IV, i. 



Backward pull our slow de- 
signs ; All's Well, I, i ; 
Wrung from me my slow 
leave, Ha?nlet, I, ii. 



28 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 


WARWICKSHIRE. 


Confusion. 


Caddie — Everything is all 
of a caddie = everything 
is in confusion. 


Convince — See Satisfy. 


Swagger. 


Come. 


Coom — With the auxiliary 
verb have-'a ; Here John 
a'coom = our John has 




come. 


Contrive — See Live from 
hand to mouth. 


Raggle — Scrabble. 


Cough (Verb). 


Hack. 


Cramped. 


Cubbed up — We be as 
cubbled up here = We are 




so cramped for room 
here. 


Criticise (Verb) to find 

fault with. 


Fault — Can you fault = 
Can you criticise it (or 
find fault with it) ? 


Crop. 


Crap. 


Cross — Vixenish. 


Contrary. 


Crusted. 


Padded — The ground is 
padded = The ground is 
hardened, dried, baked 
or crusted (as with a 
drought). 


Cucumber. 


Cowcumber. 


Curtsey. 


Obedience — Now make 
your obedience to the 
lady = now make your 
curtsey. 



A STUD V IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 



29 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



'Tis pity love should be so 
contrary ! Two Gentle- 
men of Verona, IV, iv. 



30 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 


WARWICKSHIRE. 


D 




Daughter. 


Wench — Her be the par- 
son's wench=She is the 
parson's daughter. 
("Used all over Eng- 
land without any depre- 
ciatory intention," L.) 


Death-sign. 


Token — I am certain som- 
mat has come to my son, 
for I saw his token last 
night ; it was a white dove 
flew out of the curtain. 


Decorate (Verb). 


Dizzen — Wha* be you diz- 
zenin yoursel' before the 
glass = why are you dec- 
orating (as we say prink- 
ing) yourself ? 


Dedicate (Verb). 


Wake — The church was 
waked=The church was 
dedicated. 


Defile — See Lane, Passage. 


Tewer. 


Destroy (Verb). 


Rid — (Also in several other 
dialects, H, occurs in a 
glossary of Swaledale 
Yorkshire, in this sense, 
L). 


Delayed — See Drawback. 


Lated — I am lated an 
hour=rI have been de- 
layed an hour (also in sev- 
eral other dialects, L). 


Depart — See Part. 


Shogg off. 



A S TUD Y IN WAR WICKSHIRE DIA LECT. %\ 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



PLAYS. 



Passim. 



The red plague rid ye. 
Tempest, I, ii. 



Macbeth, III, Hi. 



Sliogg off ! I would have 
you solus, Hcnry,N , ii, 7. 
Shall we shogg off, Id. , 
II, Hi. 



32 



VENUS AND ADONIS, 



VERNACULAR. 



WARWICKSHIRE. 



Devil, the 


Old Harry. 


Devour (Verb). 


Ravin, Raven or Ravine — 




L,H,S, and Earle's Phil- 




ology of the English 
tongue assign these words 
to a great many localities. 


Dew. 


Dag — There's been a nice 




flop o' dag= there's been 
a nice fall of dew. 


Different. 


Odds — It'll all be odds in 




abit=It will be differ- 




ent in a moment. 


Dig (Verb). 


Earth — Earth it up — dig it 




up. 


Digestion. 


Digester — His digester is 
bad= His digestion is out 
of order. 


Disorder — Disorderly. 


Huggermugger. 


Ditch. 


Grip. 


Does. 


Do— He do like it=He 




does like it. 


Dog-tooth — (Also Devon- 
shire, H.) 


Puggin-tooth. 


Domineering. 


Masterful. 


Doubtful. 


Debersome. — It's deber- 



some he goes^it's doubt- 
ful if he goes. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 33 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



PLAYS. 



Measure for Al r easure , I, iii; 
used in King James' ver- 
sion of Bible, Genesis 
xlix, 27. 



Love's labours lost, III, i ; 
nothing but odds with 
England, Henry, V,II,iv. 



And we have done but 
greenly ; In huggermug- 
ger to inter him, Hamlet 
IV, v. 



Doth set my puggin-tooth 
on edge, Winter s Tale, 
IV, ii. 



34 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 


WARWICKSHIRE. 


Drain. 


Grip. 


Draw (as, to draw tea). 


Mash — The tea was ready 
mashed = The tea was 
drawn. 


Drawback, or Delay (some- 
times. 


Denial — It's a great denial 
to him to be shut up in 
the houses It's a great 
drawback for him to be 
kept in-doors. 


Drenched — see Wet. 


Watched. 


Dried — see Crusted. 


Padded. 


Droop — see Sink. 


Sagg. 


Drunk. 


Fresh — He's fresh=He's 
drunk. 


Dull — see Heavy, Sleepy. 


Urked. 


Dunce — see Clown. 
E 


Geek, Patch — (Patch, says 
L. quoting H. and S.; is 
common to several dia- 
lects.) 


Emaciated — see Pinched, 
Thin. 


Picked. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 35 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



He's forfeited against any 
denial, Twelfth AHght, 
I, v. Make denials in- 
crease your services, 
Cymbeline, II, iii. 



Shall never sagg with 
doubt, Macbeth, V, iii. 

Withered serving man ; a 
fresh tapster, Merry 
Wives of W., I, iii. 



Midsummer Nigh? s Drea7?i 
III, iii. 



Used in the sense of nice 
(perhaps thin or sharp), 
in Hamlet, V. i: "The 
age is grown so picked." 
See also Love's Labour' s 
Lost, V, 1 : " He is too 
picked, too spruce." 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 



Embarass, also in the sense 
of put out, Extinguish — 
see Put Out. 



WARWICKSHIRE. 



Dout — He douts me=He 
embarrasses me. 



Endure. 



Enough. 

Erase (Verb) — see Scratch 
out. 

Ewe. 

Exactly. 



Abide, Abear — I [can't 
abide (or abear) it=I 
can't endure it. 



Enu (Enew). 
Scrat. 



Yoe. 

Justly — It fits him justly= 
It fits him exactly. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 37 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



The dram of Eale. Doth 
all the noble subs'. ance 
often doubt. To his own 
scandal, Hamlet \ I, iv. 
If this is a use of the 
Warwickshire word. I 
think this celebrated crux 
is simplified, viz : the 
morsel of evil born in 
the man embarrasses and 
extinguishes (or eclipses) 
all his good points. (Eale 
being a misprint for evil). 
See use of the word dout 
in Henry, V, IV, ii ; and 
again in Hamlet, IV, 7. 
I have a speech of fire 
that fain would blaze. 
But that this folly douts 
it. 

Very common ; see Tem- 
pest, I, ii ; Merry Wives, 
I, i ; Measure for Meas- 
ure, III, ii ; Midsummer 
Nights Dream, III, i ; 
Merchant of Venice, IV, 
i ; Julius Ccesar, III, ii, 
&c, &c. 



Be justly weighed, Twelfth 
night, V, i ; II. Hemy 
IV, IV, i. 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 



Excessive, Excessively — 
see Very. 



Exhausted. 



Extension of a house — see 
Addition, Shed, Wing. 

Extinguish — (Verb) see Em- 
barrass. 



Extremely. 



F 



WARWICKSHIRE. 



Terrible — He's terrible 
fond of the little 'un = 
He is excessively fond of 
the child. 



Forwearied — He's gone 
forwearied = He's ex- 
hausted or worn out. 



Lean to. 
Dout. 



Like — As, as, (with the ad- 
jective), It's as like as 
like=It's very like, or 
it's pleasant like=It's 
very pleasant. 



Fagot (any piece of fire Bangle, Bavin — (also in 
wood. several other dialects H.) 



Fall — see Dew. 

Famished. 

Fatigued — utterly worn out, 
see Exhausted. 

Feeble. 



Feed (Verb). 



Flop. 

Famelled. 

Forwearied — (also in sev- 
everal other dialects, H.) 

Casualty — He's getting old 
and casualty now — He's 
getting old and feeble. 

Fother, Serve — The pigs 
are served (or f othered) = 
The pigs are fed. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 39 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



PLAYS. 



Were as terrible as her ter- 
minations, Much Ado 
about Nothing, II, i. 
What is the reason of 
terrible summons, Othello 
II, i. 

Forwearied in this, K. 
John, II, i. 



And rash bavin wits, Hen. 
IV, IV, i. 



Forwearied in this, King 
John, II, i. 



For the table sir, it shall 
be served in ? Merchant 
of Venice, III, v. 



40 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 


WARWICKSHIRE. 


Fell. 


Fall— We must fall that 




tree = We must cut down 




that tree. 


Fellow (Especially a fellow 
workman, or partner in a 
job). 


Butty. 


Fennel (and umbilliferous 


Kex or Keks (also in Sus- 


plants generally). 


sex, Whitby, Mid- York- 
shire (L), and several 




other dialects, H.) 


Fitches. 


Vetches. 


Fever. 


Faver. 


Field (when enclosed). 


Close. 


Fields. 


Ground. 


Fine. 


Perial — That's a perial nag 
now = That's a fine 




mount, or that's a beau- 




tiful saddle horse. 


Finery — see Trinkets. 


Bravery (also in various 
other dialects, H.) 


First milk (of a cow after 
calving). 


Bisnings. 


Flatter (Verb). 


Claw — He claws *un=He 




flatters me. (Also in 




several other dialects, 




H.) 


Fledgeling. 


Batchling. 


Flower. 


Flur. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 41 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



Thistles, keeksies, burs, 
Henry V, V, ii. 



Which grows here in my 
close, Timon of Athens, 
V, ii. 



Taming of Shrew, IV, 3. 



42 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 


WARWICKSHIRE. 


Fluent (over ready). 


Limber — How limber your 
tongue is=How fluent 
(or talkative) you are. 


Fond. 


Partial to — I be so partial 




to onions = I am very 
fond of onions. 


Fondle — see Caress. 


Pither. 


Fool — see Clown. 


Patch~(Wise says that loon 
means a mischevious or 
rascally fool ; one who 
does intentional harm ; 
in this latter sense L. 




says it is common to a 
great many English north 
country and Scotch dia- 
lects, quoting H.) 


Fore-see — To Anticipate. 
Also a noun— Foreknowl- 
edge. 


Forecast — What do ye fore- 
cast = What do you anti- 
cipate, or foresee. 


Forthwith — see Instantly. 


Straight (also to several 
other dialects, H.) 


Frenchman. 


Mounseer (a corruption of 




Monsieur.) 


Frequent (in this sense of 
repetition) — see Plenty 
of Abundance. 


Old — There old work for 
him yet= There's plenty 
of work for him yet. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 43 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



Me cff with limber vows, 
Winter s Tale, I, ii. 

I am not partial to infringe, 
Comedy of Errors, I, i. 



Perhaps the line "Alas! 
that Warwick had no 
more forecast," 3 Hen., 
VI, V, i, is this use of 
the word. 



If a man were porter of 
hell-gate, should have old 
turning the key {Mac- 
beth, III, 3.) We shall 
have old swearing \M. of 
V., IV., 2). Here will 
be an old abusing of 
God's patience and the 
King's English (Merry 
Wives, I, i, 2) ; also 2 
Hen., IV, II, 4. Much 
Ado, V, 2.) 



44 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 



WARWICKSHIRE. 



Frightened. 



Frit — He's frit = He's 
frightened. 



Frock, (the garment worn Slop, 
by laborers, one gathered 
in by the waist. 



From. 



Frozen. 



Full (stuffed). 



Fumaria (the rank class of 
weeds). 



Off — I bought urn off Jones 
= 1 bought them from 
Tones. 

Starred. 

Chock, Ched (more par- 
ticularly with eating) — 
His bag was chock full= 
His bag was very full, as 
chock as chock. As 
ched as chedrrl have 
eaten all I want. My 
appetite is satisfied. 

Fumatorv. 



Furrow — see Ridge. 
Fuss — see Scrimmage. 

G 
Gadfly. 



: Land. 
Work. 



Brize (also in several other 
dialects, H.) 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 45 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



PLAYS. 



Disfigure not his slop, Loves" 
Labours' Lost, IV, iii. 
Satin for my short cloak 
and slops, 2 Hen., IV, I, 
ii. Salutation to your 
French slop, Romeo and 
Juliet, II, iv. 



The darnel, hemlock and 
rank fumatory, Henry V, 
V, ii, 45. Crowned with 
rank fumiter and furrow 
weeds, Lear, IV, iv, 3. 



Annoyance by the brize, 
Troilus and Cress i da, I, 
iii. The brize upon her, 
like a cow, Ant. and Cleo- 
patra, III, viii. 



46 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 


WARWICKSHIRE. 


Gander. 


Gonder. 


Gather (Verb). 


Gether. 


Gentle (timid). 


Soft — When applied to a 
girl it means gentle, 
timid, confiding; applied 
to a man it signifies dolt 
or idiot. 


Gentlemanly — see Respect- 
able. 


Still. 


Ghastly — see Horrible. 


Unked. 


Giddy. 


Gidding. 


Girl — see Daughter. 


Gell— Wench. 


Gladly. 


Lief — I'd lief go=I'd 
gladly go. 


Glide. 


Glir. 


Glean (Verb). 


Leese. 


God-parents. 


Gossips — They two are my 
gossips = They are my 
god-fathers or god-moth- 




ers. 



A STUD V IN 1VA R WICKSHIRE DIA LECT. 47 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



PLAYS. 



For we are soft as our com- 
plexions, Measure for 
Measure, II, iv ; and un- 
doubtedly often used in 
this sense throughout the 
plays. 

Perhaps so used in Troilus 
and Cress ida, I, hi. The 
still and mental parts, or 
"a still and quiet con- 
science," Henry VIII, 
II, iii. 



Used with "as" — always 
in the sense of willing in 
the plays. Mrs. Clark 
gives twenty cases in her 
" Concordance." 



Perhaps used in this sense 
in Richard, III, I, i, 
1 ' are mighty gossips in 
our monarchy." I think, 
undoubtedly, as used in 
the Christening scene, 
Henry VIII, V, V. My 
noble gossips ye have 
been too prodigal. 



48 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 



WARWICKSHIRE. 



Gosling — see Nestling. Gull. 

Gossip — see Tattler, Tale- Pitckthanks (also in Mid- 



bearer. 

Grand-father. 
Grate (Verb). 

Great. 

Greensward — see Turf. 

Grub (Verb). 



Grumbling. 

Guess — see Suppose. 

Gusty — see Windy. 

H 

Half-witted — see Witless, 
Dunce, Fool, Idiot, etc. 

Hames (the iron fitting out- 
side a horse collar, 

Handkerchief. 



Yorkshire (L), and vari- 
ous other dialects, L.) 

Gaffer. 

Race — Raced ginger = 
powdered or grated gin- 
ger. 

Girta. 

Grinsard. 

Stock. 



Her's on the Crake — Al- 
ways on the crake = She's 
always grumbling. 

Reckon (common in the 
Southern States of Ame- 
rica). 

Hurden. 



Sorry. 

Eames. 
Ankercher. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 49 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



Pickthanks and base news- 
mongers, I. Hen. IV, 
III, H. 



A race or two of ginger, 
Winter s Tale, IV, ii. 



Perhaps used in an obscene 
pun in Two Gentlemen of 
Verona, III, i: "What 
need a man care for a 
stock with a wench. 



50 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 


WARWICKSHIRE. 


Handle — (when a stick or 
pole). 


Stale — Broom stale = 
broom handle ; mop 
stale = mop handle ; rake 
stale = rake handle. 


Hardy — See healthy. 


Frem — Your plants do look 
frem = Your plants look 
vigorous (or hardy). 


Harness (Verb or Noun). 


Gear the horses Harness 
the horse. Put on the 
gear = put on the harness. 


Hatchet. 


Hook bill. 


Have (auxiliary Verb). 


A'. 


Head. 


Yed. 


Headstall (the headgear of 
a horse). 


Mullen. 


Headstrong — see Obstinate. 


Awkward. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 51 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



Perhaps used in this sense 
as a figure of speech in 
Much Ado about Noth- 
ing, II, ii, where Hero, 
whosevirtue is slandered, 
is called a "contaminated 
stale"; and again in IV, 
i: "to link my dear 
friend to a common 
stale." 



Used in the sense of 
"trappings," "uniform," 
or "dress"; undoubted- 
ly in the plays. 



By awkward wind from 
England, 2 Henry VI, 
III, ii. Ridiculous and 
awkward action, Troi- 
lus and Cressida, I, iii. 



52 VENUS AND ADONIS. 


VERNACULAR. 


1 

WARWICKSHIRE. 


Healthy — see Hardy, 
Thriving. 


Peart — He's quite peart to- 
day = He is in good 
health or spirits to-day. 
A lively, healthy child is 
called a "rile"; a weak 




or sickly old person is a 
1 ' wratch " ; a sickly child 




is a " scribe". Applied 
to an animal, the adject- 




ive is kind — As, that cow 




aint kind = That cow 




doesn't thrive. Applied 




to plants the adjective 
used is " frem" 


Heavy (dull or insensible, 
sleepy). 


Mulled — He be mulled= 
He is sleepy. 


Heavy (applied to bread). 


Sad — It's a sad loaf = The 
bread is heavy (a sad iron 
is a flat iron). 


Hedgehog. 


Urchin (" occurs in almost 
every glossary I possess," 
L.) 


Heel Rake. 


Helrake = The big rake 
that follows the harvest- 




ing wagon. 


Hemlocks — see Fennel. 


Kecks. 


Herbs. 


Yarbs. 


Hers. 


Shisn — Its shisn's == Its 




hers. 



A S TUD Y IN WAR WICKSHIRE DIA LECT. 53 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



PLAYS. 



* 'The urchin snouted boar, " 
S., 185 (line 1105). 



Mulled, deaf, sleepy, in- 
sensible, Coriolanus y IV, 
5. 

The meaning of heavy and 
sad, as we use it, are 
nearly interchangable 
almost always in the 
plays. 



54 



VENUS AXD ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 



WARWICKSHIRE. 



High spirited. 



Hindrance — see Drawback. 



His. 

Hit (perfect of Verb). 

Hoe (Verb). 

Home. 

Horrible. 



Horse (for riding). 



Houses. 



Stomachful. 



Denial. 



His'n. 

Hot — I hot him=I have 
hit him. 

Hove. 

Who am. 

Unked — His leg is an 
unked sight=His leg is 
horrible to behold. (Al- 
so dull, lonely, solitary, 
which see). 

Nag (but in every other 

English dialect). 



Housen (this old Saxon 
plural is used still in 
many words in Warwick- 
shire, such as Hosen, 
plural of hose, etc). 



VrUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 



55 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



PLAYS. 



Stomach, in this sense, com- 
mon enough in the plays. 
" Enterprise that hath a 
stomach in't, Hamlet, I, 
i. My little stomach to 
the war, Troilus and 
Cressida, III, 3. Many 
an unbounded stomach, 
Hen. VIII, IV., ii, etc. 

The sense is interchange- 
able in such passages as 
He's fortified against any 
denial, Twelfth Night, 
I, v. Be not ceased with 
slight denial, Timon of 
Athens, II, i. 



Gait of a shuffling nag, 
Henry, IV, iii, I. Know 
we not Galloway nags, 
2 Henry, IV, II, iv. 



56 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 


WARWICKSHIRE. 


However. 


Howsomdever or Weever 
(both forms are used). 


Hungry. 


Famelled. 


I 




Idiot — see Clown, Igno- 


Geek— Patch. 


ramus. 




Idle (Verb) — see Loiter. 


Mess — Doant mess along= 
Don't idle by the way. 


Idler. 


Feeder — They're a' feed- 
ers = They are idlers, 
good for nothing per- 
sons. (Also in several 
other dialects, H.) 


Ignoramus — see Clown. 


Patch. 


Immediately — see Present- 
ly, Instantly. 


Awhile. 


Improperly. 


Out of — To call a man out 
of his name = To give his 




name improperly. 


Incite — see Induce. 


Kindle. 


Inconvenient. 


Illconvenient. 


Induce. 


Kindle — I'll kindle him = 
I'll induce (or prevail up- 
on) him to do it. (Also 
in South Yorkshire (L) 
and several other dia- 
lects, H, S.) 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 



57 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



The most notorious geek, 
Twelfth Night, V, i. 
To become the geek and 
scornd*. — Cymbeline, V, 
iv. 



will your very faithful 
feeder be, As You Like 
It, II, iv. Feeders digest 
it with a custom, Win- 
ter's Tale, IV, iii. The 
tutor and the feeder of 
my riots, 2 Henry, IV, v, 
5- 



But that I kindle the boy 
thither, As You Like It, 
III, iii. Used in Wy- 
clif's translation of Bible, 
Luke iii, 7. 



58 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 


WARWICKSHIRE. 


Instantly. 


Awhile— Straight (the lat- 
ter is the imperative form 
I'll do it awhile = ril do 




it at once, do it straight, 
do it instantly). 


Interfere (Verb). 


Meddle an' make — I'm not 
going to meddle an' make 




rrrl'm not going to inter- 
fere. 


Inwards. 


Innards — I'm that bad in 




my innards=:Fm suffer- 




ing internally. 


K 




Key. 


Kay. 


L 




Lack — see Spare. 




Laid — see Lay. 


Lodged. 


Lambkin — see Yearling. 


Earling — Teg. 


Lands outlying. 


Grounds. 


Lane — see Passage. 


Tewer. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 59 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



Make her grave straight, 
Hamlet. V, i. 



Priest should meddle an' 
make (written or), Merry 
Wives of Windsor, I, iv. 
The less you meddle or 
make with them, Much 
Ado about Nothing, III, 



Though bladed corn be 
lodged, and trees, Mac- 
beth, IV, i. Summer's 
corn by tempest lodged, 
2 Henry VI, III, ii. 

That all the earlings which 
were streaked and pied 
Merchant of Venice, I, 



60 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 


WARWICKSHIRE. 


Lay (Verb). 


Lodge — The corn is lodged 
= The corn is laid. (Also 
in Kent, Surrey, Sussex 
(L), and Westmoreland 
dialect, H.) 


Large — see Commodious, 
Roomy. 


Roomthy 


Leavings. 


Outs — I don't have to eat 
their outs = I don't have 
to eat their leavings. 


Lights (the liver and lights 
of a sheep). 


Pluck. 



Likely. 



Lilac. 



Live from hand to mouth 
(Verb) — To contrive, to 
worry along. 

Lively — see Healthy. 

Litter (in the sense of Con- j 
fusion) — see Mess. 

Loaf. 



Log. 

Loiter — To Idle, to Waste 
Time. 



Like — I was like to fall= 
I was likely to fall. 

Laylock. 

Raggle (or scrabble) — I can 
raggle along= I can man- 
age to get along. 

Peart. 

Lagger, or Caddie. 

Batchling (more properly 
a freshly baked loaf). 

Cleft. 

Mess — Her's only messing 
about home= She's id- 
ling or loitering, and ac- 
complishing nothing, 
about the house. 



A S TUD Y IN WAR WICKSHIRE DIA LECT 61 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



PLAYS. 



See Laid. 



Used as an adverb contin- 
ually in the plays. 



62 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 


WARWICKSHIRE. 


Lonely— Lonesome. 


Unked. 


Lounge (Verb). 
M 


Lunge — What's the odds if 
I lunge or kneels What's 
the difference whether I 
kneel or lean forward on 
my elbows. 


Manage — see Contrive. 


Raggle — Scrabble. 


Marriage lines or Lines. 


A certificate of marriage. 


Marshy (soft, sloppy). 


Flacky. 


Mason. 


Massenter. 


May. 


Maun — I maun an' I maunt 




== I may and I may not. 


Me. 


'Un — Don't claw un= 
Don't flatter me. 


Medicine — A remedy or 
potion. 


Doctor's stuff — Phisikin 
stuff — when for animals 
it is drink, drench. 


Mess — A muddle, a litter. 


Lagger — Caddie. 


Mid-lent Sunday. 


Mothering Sunday (because 
girls out at service were 
usually allowed to spend 
that Sunday at home.) 


Miry (sloppy, soft — see 
Muddy). 


Flacky, Slobbery — (Also 
East Norfolkshire, L.) 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 



63 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



Slobber not business for 
my sake, Gratiano, M. 
of Venice, II, viii, 39. 
To buy a slobbery and a 
dirty farm, Henry V, III, 



64 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 


Mischievous — see Trouble- 
some, and distinction 
noted thereunder. 


Miser. 


Morsel. 


Move along (Verb) — In the 
sense of "Clear out," 
" Be off with you." 


Moving (to move from one 
house to another). 


Mr. 


Mrs. 


Muddy, Sloppy. 



WARWICKSHIRE. 

Anointed, unlucky — He's 
an anointed (or unlucky) 
rascal= He's a mischiev- 
ous rascal (innocently 
mischievous, mischieful). 

Codger. 

Bittock. 

Budge — Come noo, you 
budge ! = Move along at 
once. 



Rimming — We be a rim- 
ming o' Mondays We 
move to a new house on 
Monday. 

Master — (Common to vari- 
ous English dialects, H.) 
L. says that in Sussex it 
means a married man, 
unmarried men being ad- 
dressed by their given 
names. 

Missus. 

Slobbery — (Also East Nor- 
folkshire L.) 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 65 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



PLAYS. 



When you shall these un- 
lucky deeds relate (?), 
Othello, V, ii. Some ill, 
unlucky thing, Romeo and 
Juliet, V, iii. 



You shall not budge, Ham- 
lit, III, iv. Must I 
budge ? Julius Ccesar, 
IV, iii. I'll not budge 
an inch, Taming of 
Shrew-Induction, (and in 
several other places). 



I will sell my dukedom, to 
buy a slobbery and dirty 
farm, Hen, V, III, v. 
See Miry. 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 



Mug (especially a small 
mug). 

Musical Instrument. 



Must. 



N 

Near (personal proximity). 



Near (in place or position). 



Nearly (see near). 



Neighborhood. 

Nestling — An unfledged 
bird, a gosling. 



Nimble. 



WARWICKSHIRE. 



Tot. 



Music (as applied to all in- 
struments alike). 



Mun — I mun do it= I must 
do it. 



Anigh — Don't come anigh 
me= Don't come near 
me. 

Agin — He lives just agin 
us=He lives handy to 
or handy to us, or, He 
lives near us. 

Handy to — In quantity (in 
the sense of nearly equal) 
That bit of ground is 
handy to twenty pole = 
That piece of land is 
nearly twenty rods long. 

Hereabouts. 

Gull. 



Limber. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 67 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



PLAYS. 



With musics of all sorts, 
All's Well, III, wii. And 
let him ply his music, 
Hamlet, II, i. 



Lord Timon will be left a 
naked gull, T. of Athens, 
II, i. As that ungentle 
gull, the cuckoo's bird, 
I Hen. VI, V, i. 



Put me off with limber 
vows, Winters Tale, I, 
ii. 



68 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 


WARWICKSHIRE. 


Noise. 


Blunder— Blundering— Ha* 
done that blundering= 
Stop that noise. 


Not. 


Na — Used as a suffix, as 




shanna = Shall not. 




Shouldna = Should not. 




Doesna = Does not. 




Hadna = Had not. 




Wouldna (sometimes 
wotna)= Would not, etc. 


Not (is not). 


Yent — He yent yourn= 
He is not yours. 


Not (not so much as). 


Never — Noways — Her's 
never (or noways) a bon- 
net = She has not so 




much as a bonnet. 


Noted — see Celebrated. 


Deadly — He's deadly for 
church going = He is 




noted for church going. 


Notions — see Whim. 


Megrims — It's a pity she 
do take such megrims 
into her head = It's a 




pity she has such notions. 


Numerous (any large num- 
ber). 


A sight of — There was a 
sight of people = There 
were a great many people. 







Oaf — see Clown. 


Yawrups. 


Oats. 


Wuts. 


Obeisance — see Curtsey. 


Obedience. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 69 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



PLAYS. 



70 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 



WARWICKSHIRE. 



Obstinate — see Headstrong. 
Occasion (a pretext). 

Of. 



Once. 



Onion. 

Open (Verb imperative in 
the sense of unfasten), 



Opposite (in place). 



Ornament (Verb). See dec 
orate. 

Ours. 

Ourselves. 

Overbearing. 

Overcome — (in the sense of 
survive, ''get over, the 
effect of.") 



Pale (see wan). 



Awkward. 

Call— He han't no call to 
do it= He has no pretext 
for doing it. 

In — They be just come 
out in school = They 
have just come out of 
school. 

Aince — Aince a whiles = 
Once in a while. 

Einyun. 

Dup — Dup the door= Un- 
fasten the door. (Also 
in Wiltshire dialect, H.) 

Anent — He lives anent 
here=He lives opposite, 
or across the road from 
here. 

Dizzen. 



Ourn. 

Oursens. 

Masterful. 

Overgo oroverget — I shan't 
overget it = I shall not 
get over the effects of 
it. 



Wanny. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 71 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



And dupped the chamber 
door, Hamlet, IV, ii, 53. 



Overgo thy plaints and 
drown. Richard III., 
II, ii. 



n 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 



WARWICKSHIRE. 



Pansy (the wild variety). 



Parish. 



Part (verb) — To part com- 
pany, depart, separate. 



Particular. 



Parsley (and umbilliferous 
plants generally). 



Part company, 
rate. 

Passage. 



Passionate. 



Pasture. 
Pasturage. 



See sepa- 



Love-in-idleness. 



Field—That bit lies in Al- 
kerton fields That land 
is in Alkerton parish. 
(Also in Yorkshire [L] 
and several other dia- 
lects, H. and S). 

Shog off— We'll shog off 
= We'll part company 
now and journey to- 
gether no further. 

Choice — He's very choice 
over his victuals=He's 
very particular as to what 
he eats. 

Kex or kecks. 



Shog. 

Tewer — Her lives up the 
tewer = She lives in a 
narrow passage. 

Franzy — The Master's 
such a terrible franzy 
man = The master is a 
very passionate man. 

Lay. 

Joisting — What must I pay 
for this joisting=What 
must I pay for this pas- 
turage. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 73 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



PLAYS. 



And maidens call it love 
in idleness. — Midsum- 
mer Night's Dream , II, 
ii. 



Shog off. I would have 
you solus. — Henry V., 
II., i. Shall we shog? — 
Henry V., II., iii. 



See Fennel. 



Shall we shog ? — Henry V, 
II, iii. 



74 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 



WARWICKSHIRE. 



Pea-Finch. 

Peaked (see pale, pinched, 
wan). 

Pebble. 

Peculiarities (see notions, 
whim). 



Peep (verb). 

Perfect (verb) — in the sense 
of put into good order — 
good condition. 

Perhaps. 



Perspiration — see sweat. 
Piecemeal. 

Pinafore. 

Pinched (attenuated or 
emaciated, sickly, un- 
healthy looking). See 
healthy. 



Pity, or shame (in the 
sense of " too bad.") 



Picod. 

Picked — (Pronounced as a 
dissyllable). 

Pibble. 

Megrims — She has her 
own megrims = She has 
her own notions or pe- 
culiarities. 

Peek. 

Fettle. 



Happen — Happen it'll be 
a long time = Perhaps it 
will be a long time. 



Grit— To do work by the 
grit = To do work little 
by little. 

Pinny. 

Picked — Pronounced as a 
dissyllable. A weak, 
sickly looking child is a 
scribe, as opposed to a 
rile, a healthy looking 
child. 

Poor tale — It's a poor tale 
ye couldn't come=It's a 
pity you couldn't come. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT, 75 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



PLAYS. 



Fettle your fine joints 
'gainst Thursday next. — 
Romeo and Juliet \ III, 
v, 152. 



76 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 



WARWICKSHIRE. 



Plenitude (see below). 

Plenty of — plenitude 
frequent). 



(see 



Pound — i.e. pummel(verb). 
See belabor. 



Pregnant (with child). 

Presently. 

" Prink" — See decorate. 
Produce — See induce. 
Properly. 

Prophecy. 

Prosecute. 



Old — There's been old 
work to-day = There's 
been plenty of work to- 
day. 



Pun — See 'im a punnin' 
'un = See him pound 
him. 

[Also Westmoreland (H) 
and Sussex dialects (L.)] 

Childing — Her's childing 
= She is with child. 

[Also in several other dia- 
lects, (H).] 

Awhile — I'll do it awhile 
= I'll do it presently. 



Kindle. 

A'Form(pronounced faum) 
— We sing it a'form= 
We sing it properly. 

Forecast. 



Persecute — He was perse- 
cuted for larceny = Hewas 
prosecuted for larceny. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 77 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



PLAYS. 



By the mass here will be 
old Utis (a plentiful or 
extraordinary celebra- 
tion of any festival. Utis 
is the octave of any 
feast).— 2 Hen. IV, II, 
iv. Yonder's old coil at 
home. i.e. Plenty of trou- 
ble or confusion). Muck 
Ado, V, ii. 

He would pun him into 
shivers with his fist. — 
Troilus and Cressida, 

ii, i. 



The childing autumn. — 
Midsummer Nighfs 
Dream, II, I, 112. 



Alas that Warwick had no 
more/<?ra;ast. — 3 Hen., 
VI, V, 7. 



78 



VENUS AND ADOXIS. 



VERNACULAR. 



WARWICKSHIRE. 



Prosperous. 
Prosperously. 



Protected (see sheltered). 
Proud — see stalk. 
Provide (verb). Also 



sense of foresee, 
see. 

Provoke (verb). 



in 
Which 



Provoked. 



Put on airs (verb). 



Smartish (adjective and 
adverb). 

I'm getting on smartish = 
I am prospering (or do- 
ing well). 

Un's smartish a'day=He 
is prosperous at present. 

Burrowed. 

Stomach full. 

Forecast — He forecast it 
= He provided for it be- 
forehand. 

Urge — That 'oman do 
urge me so = That wo- 
man always provokes me. 



Mad — I'm mad as mad = 
I'm very much provoked. 

Common to all other dia- 
lects, and correct in the 
vernacular. 



Pummel (verb). See belabor. Pun. 



Jets — A' jets = He is put- 
ting on airs ; assuming 
too much. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 79 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



PLAYS. 



" Urge not my lather's an- 
ger." — Two Gent, of 
Verona, IV, iii. 

How canst thou urge God's 
dreadful. — Richard III, 
V, iv. 

Certainly used in the two 
above cases, and proba- 
bly in four or five other 
cases. 



To jet upon a prince's right. 

— Cymbeline, II, i. 
How he jets under his ad- 
vanced. — Twelfth Night, 

II, v. 
That giants may jet. — 

Cymbeline, III, iii. 



80 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 



Put out (see embarrass). 



Quickly — in the imperative. 
See instantly. 



Ram. 

Rascal — (usually a man or 
woman malicious by in- 
clination, but stupid by 
nature). 

Reach (verb active), or 
approach. 



Reference. 



Refined — see respectable. 

Regret — something to be 
regretted. See pity. 

Refuse — see rubbish. 



WARWICKSHIRE. 



Dout — Staffordshire and 
South Wales. (Also in 
Sussex and Yorkshire 
dialects, (L).) 



Straight — Do *t straight 
Go and do it at once. 



Tap. 
Loon. 



Going in — I am going in 
twelve^ I am reaching 
my twelfth year. 

Character — I took her 
wi'out a character = I 
took her without any 
references as to her 
character. 

Still. 

Poor tale. 



Refudge. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 81 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



PLAYS. 



Make her grave straight. — 
Hamlet ', V, I. 

And in over one hundred 
other places noted by 
Clarke's Concordance. 



Thou cream-faced loon ! — 
Macbeth, V, iii. 



82 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 


WARWICKSHIRE. 


Remain (verb). Also in 
the imperative, wait. 


Bide — We'll bide here= 
We'll wait here. Bide 
where you be= Remain 
where you are. 

(But common to almost 
all English dialects). 


Remember (verb). 


Mind — Common to almost 
all English dialects. 


Remnants (see leavings). 


Outs. 


Resemble. 


Favour — He favors his 
father = He resembles 
his father. 

Common to many English 
dialects, and a proper 
word in the vernacular. 


Respectable. 


Still — He's a still, quiet 
man= He's a respecta- 
ble, refined (or gentle- 




manly mannered) man. 


Reserved (see proud). 


Stomachful. 


Restrain (verb). 


Keep — He cannot keep 
hisself=He cannot re- 
strain himself. 


Rheumatism. 


Rheumatics, Rheumatiz — 
If in a single limb it is 
rheumatiz — If all over 
the body it is rheumat- 
ics. 


Rick frame — The frame- 
work on which the ricks 
are placed. 


Staddle. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 83 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



PLAYS. 



0, 'tis a foul thing when a 
cur cannot keep him- 
self.— Two Gent, of V. y 
IV, 4. 



84 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 


WARWICKSHIRE. 


Rid (verb par.), to be 
of. 


rid 


Shut on — I was glad to be 
shut on she=I was glad 
to be rid of her. 


Rinse. 




Swill. 


Rise — (an appreciation 
price). 


in 


Riz — Butter's riz — There 
is a rise in the price of 
butter. 

(A very common mispro- 
nunciation everywhere). 


Road. 




Ride — Especially a new 
road cut through a wood. 


Robin. 




Bobby. 


Rook. 




Crow 


Roomy. 




Roomthy. 


Rough grass. 




Couchgrass or fog. 


Row — (a quarrel). 


See 


Work. 


scrimmage. 






Rubbish. 




Refuge or refudge. 


Russet apple. 




Leather coat. 


S 






Saddler. 




Whittaw. 


Same. 




A' one — It's a' oner=It's all 
the same thing. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 85 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



PLAYS. 



A galled rock — swilled 
with the wild and waste- 
ful ocean. — Henry V, 
II, 1-14. 



Here is a dish of leather 
coats for you. — 2 Hen., 
IV, V, iii. 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 



Satiety — a plentitude 01 
abundance of anything, 
See frequent, plenty of. 

Satisfy. 



Saucy (pert). 



Saw — perfect of verb to 
see. 

Scanty — see short. 



Scarecrow — any unsightly 
or grotesque object. 

Scold — a female of violent 
temper. 

Scrape (verb). See grate. 

Scraps (especially what is 
left in lard boiling). 

Scratch (verb). 
Scratch out — to erase. 



WARWICKSHIRE. 



Old. 



Swagger — You was want- 
ing to see some big dah- 
lias, come into my gar- 
den, an' I'll swagger ye. 
= 1 will satisfy you if 
you will step into my 
garden. 

Canting — She's a canting 
wench = She's a saucy 
girl. 

See — I never see she = I 
never saw her. Not pe- 
culiar to Warwickshire. 

Cop, cob, cobby — A cob- 
loof=A very small or 
stumpy loaf. 



Moikin or Malkin. 
Mankind witch. 

Race. 

Scratchings. 

Skant — He" skanted it= 
He scratched it. 

Scrat — Don't scrat me: 
Don't erase my name. 



A STUD V IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 87 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



In Troilus and Cressida, 
II, i, Ajax calls Thersites 
a cob-loaf, i. e, a small 
loaf. 

A malkin not worth the time 
of day, Pericles, IV, iii, 34 

A mankind witch — hence 
with her. — Winter's 
Tale, II, 3. 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 



WARWICKSHIRE. 



Scrimmage. 



Season (a short duration of 
time). 



Seat (settee). 
Separate — see Part. 



Sermon. 



Shafts (of a wagon). 



Share. 



Sharper (a cunning, deceit- 
ful person). 



Work — What work then 
was up there = What a 
scrimmage then was up 
there. 



'Bout — He's had a bout o' 
drinking = He's been 
drunk for some time. 

Settle. 

As where two have been 
journeying together. 

We must be shogging now 
= We must separate now. 

Shogoffnow^Goyourways 
and let me go mine. 

(Also in various other dia- 
lects, H. S. L. assigns 
it to Yorkshire. Is also 
used in Wyclif's trans- 
lation of the Bible. 

Sarmint — not peculiar to 
Warwickshire. 

Tills— (Also in ' Whitby 
glossary, L). 

The short wooden sheath 
stuck in the waistband 
to rest one of the needles 
in whilst knitting. 

File. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT, 89 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



Troilus and Cressida y III, 
ii. 



90 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 


WARWICKSHIRE. 


She (nominative case femi- 
nine). 


Her. 


Shear (verb). 


Daggle — Especially to 
shear around a sheep's 
tail. Dag locks are 
the bits of wool cut off 
around the tail stump. 


Shed — or the addition, wing 
of or extension to a 
house. 


Lean to. 


Sheep. 


Ship — The ship be dag- 
gled = Sheep are com- 
pletely sheared. (Even 
the dag - locks around 
their tails cut off). 


Sheltered — protected (as 
from the weather). 


Burrow — It's burrow 
as burrow here = It's 
very sheltered here. 


Short. 


Cob, Cop or Cobby — Cop 
nuts = very small or 
stumpy nuts, with very 
minute or innutritious 
kernels. 

(Also in Oxfordshire, Kent, 
Surrey, Yorkshire and 
Staffordshire, L). 


Showery — Drizzling. 


Dampin*. — It's rather 
dampin' to-day = It's a 
rather showery day. 


Shirt. 


Shift — Also used as a verb. 
To change one's linen= 
To shift one's self. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 91 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



Ajax calls Thersites Cob- 
loaf ! — Troilus and 
Cressida, II, i, 36. 



92 



VENUS AXD A DON IS. 



VERNACULAR. 



WARWICKSHIRE. 



Sickly person. See healthy. 

Since. 

Sing, singing — applied to 
a bird or animal. 



Sink — To droop or be- 
come tired. 



Slate. 

Slattern — (any untidy per- 
son). 



Wratch or scribe. 



Sen. 



Sleepy. 



Slice. 



Slide (verb), as on ice. 

Slippery — see miry, mud- 
dy. 

Sloes. 



Whistle — The whistling 
thrusher = A singing 
thrush. 

Sagg — She be sagged out 

= She is drooping with 

weariness. 
(Also in Yorkshire (L),and 

several other dialects, 

H. S). 

Slat. 
Slommocks. 



Mulled. 



Shive — A shive 'a uns loaf 
= A slice of his loaf of 
bread. 

(Also in Hallamshire and 
other parts of Yorkshire 
(L). H. assigns it to 
several dialects). 

Glir. 



slippy. 



Slans. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 93 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



Shall never sagg with 
doubt. — Macbeth, V, iii. 



Mulled, deaf, sleepy, in- 
sensible. — Coriolanus, 
IV, v. 

Of a cut loaf to steal a 
shive . — Titus A ndroni- 
cus, II, i. 



94 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 


WARWICKSHIRE. 


Sloppy — see muddy. 


Slobbery. 


Smell — see short, stumpy, 
scanty. 


Cob, cobby, cop. (Also 
in Oxfordshire, Kent, 
Surrey, Yorkshire and 
Staffordshire dialects, 
L). 


Snuff, Sniff — To snuff or 
scent as a dog, to hunt. 


Bre'vet — How the dog do 
brevet about=rHow the 
dog sniffs around. 


Soft (marshy, sloppy, 
wet). See miry, muddy. 


Flacky. 


Solitary. 


Unked. 


Spare. 


Miss — I cannot miss him 
at harvestings I cannot 
spare him at harvesting. 


Something. 


Summat. 


Sour apple. 


Bitter-sweeting. 


Spacious. 


Roomthy. 


Sparrow — especially the 
hedge sparrow. 


Betty. 


Squint. 


Squinny. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 



95 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



I will sell my dukedom to 
buy a slobbery and dirty 
farm. — Hen. V f III, 5. 

Trot/us and Cressida, II, . 



But as 't is we cannot miss 
him — He does make our 
fire — fetch in our wood. 
— Tempest, I, ii, 311. 

He would miss it, rather 
than carry it, but by the 
suit of the gentry to 
him. — Coriolanus y II, i, 
253. 

Thy wit is a very bitter 
sweeting. — Romeo and 
Juliet \ II, iv. 



Dost thou squinny at me. — 
Lear, IV vi, 120. 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 


WARWICKSHIRE. 


Spoke — preterite of to 
speak, used as a proverb 
of inanimate things, nev- 


Jerk, quoth the ploughshare 
= The ploughshare went 
jerk — or said "jerk." 


er of persons. 




Stalk — to walk proudly. 


Jet — (common to various 
dialects, H). 


Starving. 


Fameled. 


Stately. 


Stomachful. 


Stile. 


Clapgate. 


Sting}-. 


Near. 


Stock — see handle. 


Stale. 


Stop (imperative verb). 


Gie over, or a' done — A' 
done will 'ee (or, gie 
over)=Have done (stop) 
at once ! 


Straightway — that is quick- 
ly, at once. See instant- 
ly, quickly. 


Straight — (Also in several 
other dialects, H). 


Strut (verb) — to walk 
proudly. See stalk. 


Jet. 


Stubble stack. 


Hallow. 


Stubborn — see obstinate. 


Awkward. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT 97 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



PLAYS. 



True it is, my incorporate 
friends, quoth he (the 
stomach). — Coriolanus, 
*. i> 23. 

Shake, quoth the dove- 
house. — Romeo and Ju- 
liet, I, iii, 33. 

How he jets under his ad- 
van ces . — TwelfthNigh t, 
II, v. 

To jet upon a Prince's 
right. — Cymbeline, II, i. 



Make her grave straight. - 
Hamlet V, i. 



98 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 



Stumpy — see 
scanty. 



short, small, 



Stupid (noun). See clown. 

Sty (in the eye). 
Suckling. 



Superior. 
Suppose. 



WARWICKSHIRE. 

Cob, cobby, cop — A cob 
loaf=A short or very 
scant loaf of bread. 

Also in Oxfordshire, Kent, 
Surrey, Yorkshire and 
Staffordshire dialects, L). 

Yawrups. 

Quot. 

Dilling — The smallest pig 
in the litter, used as a 
term of endearment for 
a small child, as There, 
be a good dilling now, 
an' go to sleep quiet. 

Bettermost — A's Better- 
most nor him=I'm bet- 
ter than he. 

Reckon — "Suppose" is 
only used when telling 
facts. As : So John is 
going to Lunnon, I sup- 
pose^John is going to 
London. 

In some of the Southern 
States of the United 
States, reckon is used 
just as the Warwickshire 
peasant uses "suppose." 
I reckon you'll dine 
with us to-day, = We 
shall rely on your dining 
with us. That is, it is a 
pressing invitation to 
dinner, and not exactly 
the statement of an ex- 
isting arrangement. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 99 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



1 Cobloaf !" — Troilus and 
Cressida, II, i. 



100 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 



WARWICKSHIRE. 



Sure. 



Surmount. 

Suspect (verb). 

Suddenly. 
Swing (verb). 

Sweat (verb). 



Sweat (Noun). 
Swollen. 



Safe — He's safe to do it= 
He's sure to do it. 

Common to almost all 
known English dialects, 
as well as good ac- 
cepted English. 

Overgo or overget. 



Judge — I judge him guil- 
ty = I suspect that he is 
guilty. 

Suddent. 

Geg, gaig — Let's gaig no' 
= Let's take a swing. 

Gibber — (In the passage in 
Hamlet, ' ' and the sheet- 
ed dead did squeak and 
gibber in the Roman 
streets;" the word "gib- 
ber" is said almost to 
mean gabble or chatter, 
but if the word were 
used in the Warwick- 
shire sense, how much 
more ghastly and horri- 
ble the picture! The dead 
— out of place in the 
Roman streets, worried 
and sweated. 

Muck — I'm all of a muck 

I'm sweaty. 
Bluffy — My hands are as 

bluffy as bluffy = My 
hands are very much 
swollen. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 101 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 


PLAYS. 




Is used very frequently in 
the plays. My ships 
are safe to road. — Mer- 




chant of Venice, V, i, 




etc. 




Overgo thy plaints and 
down. — Richard III y 




II, ii. 



102 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 


WARWICKSHIRE. 


T 






Tadpole. 




Jackbonnial. 


Talebearer — A 
See tattler. 


carry tale. 


Clatterer. 


Tame. 




Cade — Cade lamb = Pet 
lamb. 


Tape. 




Inkle, Inkles — (Also in 
Whitby dialect, H. S). 


Tattle (verb). 




Clat. 


Tattler — see gossip. 


Pickthanks, clatterer. Also 
in mid Yorkshire (L), 
and several other dia- 
lects, H. S). 


Tea. 




Tay. 


Teach. 




Lam. 



Tease (Verb). 



Termagant — see Scold. 



Worrit — A' done worriting 
me = Stop teasing me. 
Common to almost every 
English dialect. 

Mankind Witch. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 103 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



PLAYS. 



The price of this inkle. — 
Love' s Labour* s Lost, III, 
i. Winter's Tale, IV., 
iii. Inkles, caddies, 
cambrics. Her inkle, 
silk, twin with. — Per- 
icles \ V, (Gower's Pro- 
logue). 



Pickthanks and base news- 
mongers. — /. Henry LV, 



III, ii. 



A mankind witch — hence 
with her ! Winter's Tale, 
H,3. 



104 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 


WARWICKSHIRE. 


Thatch (Verb). 


Thack — He thacked the 
housen = He thatched 
the houses. 


Thatch (over a bee hive). 


Hackle. 


Theirs. 


Theirn. 


Thick — see Stumpy. 


Cob, Cop, Cobby — Cob 
loaf= A short, thick loaf. 


Thief. 


Lifter — (Also in various 
other dialects, H.) 


Thin — see Emaciated, 
Pinched. 


Poor — He's as poor as poor 
= He's very thin. 


Thoughtless. 


Gidding. 


Thrash — see Whip. 


Warm. 


Thriving — see Healthy. 


Kind — That cow aint kind 
= That cow doesn't 
thrive. 


Thrush. 


Thrusher — Whistling 
thrusher =The song 
thrush. Gore thrusher = 
The missing thrush. 


Timid — see Gentle. 


Soft. 


Tired — see Exhausted. 


Sated — I be quite sated wi' 
being in'a house=I am 
tired of staying in- 
doors. 


Toil (Noun and Verb). 


Moil — I've been moiling 'a 
day = I've been toiling 
all day. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 105 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



PLAYS. 



And so old a lifter, Troil- 
us and Cressida, II, i. 



Perhaps used in this sense 
by chorus to Act II. of 
Henry V : "O England, 
what mightest thou do, 
were all thy children kind 
and natural." 



106 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 



Tolerably. 



Tolerably bad. 



Toll (Verb)— More exactly 
to toll a bell properly. 



Trinkets — see Decorate. 



Toss, or Shake (as in hay- 
making). 



Trouble (Verb). 



WARWICKSHIRE. 



Middling or Pretty Midd- 
ling — We gets on pretty 
middling— We are doing 
tolerably well; but see 
below for opposite mean- 
ing. 

Very Middling — He is do- 
ing very middlings He 
is doing badly. The 
word middling has oppo- 
site meanings according 
as it is prefixed by pret- 
ty or very, " thus pretty 
middling" might "mean 
tolerably good." 

Knoll (Noal)— Have the 
bell knowled=Have it 
properly tolled, 



Bravery — She is all bravery 
= She wears a great 
many ribbons or trink- 
ets, i. e. much finery. 
(Also in several other 
dialects, H.) 

Ted — He's teddin = He's 
tossing (or shaking up) 
the hay out of the swath. 

Fash — He do fash hisself 
= He troubles himself. 



A S TUD Y IN WAR WICKSHIRE DIA LECT. 107 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



PLAYS. 



Where bells have knolled 
to church, As You Like It 
II, vii, 114 ; also ibid, 
line 131. And so his 
knell is knolled, Mac- 
beth, V, vii, 54. Knol- 
ling a departed friend, 2 
Hen. IV, I, i, 103. 

Where youth and cost and 
witless bravery keeps, 
Measure for Measure, I, 
iii, 10. With scarfs and 
fans, and double changed 
bravery, Taming of 
Shrew, IV, iii. 



108 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 



Troublesome 
chievous. 



Mis- 



Tub. 



Tuft (of grass.) 
Turf (Greensward). 

U 
Unfasten (as a door). 



Unknown. 

Untidy — But more gener- 
ally as a noun, an untidy 
person, a slattern (which 
see). 

Unusual. 



WARWICKSHIRE. 



Tageous — The boy's tage- 
ous=The boy is trouble- 
some, or (perhaps) in- 
clined to be vicious. 
Mere frolicsomeness, or 
innocent mischief is ex- 
pressed by the adjectives 
" annointed" or " un- 
lucky." 

Kiver — Properly a butter 
tub, the tub the butter is 
worked in after being 
taken from the churn. 

Tussock. 

Grinsard. 



Dup — Dup the door = 
Open the door. Wise, 
however, says the word 
is used as an order to 
fasten or unfasten a 
door. (Also in Wiltshire 
dialect, H.) 

Unbeknownt. 



Slommocks. 



Unaccountable (Unake- 
ountable) — It's unac- 
countable weathers It's 
unusual weather. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 109 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



PLAYS. 



And dupped the chamber 
door, Hamlet, IV, ii. 



110 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 



Urge — see Induce. 
Useless. 



Very — see Excessive, Ex- 
tremely. 



Vicious — see Mischievous, 
Troublesome. 

Vigorous (applied to plants) 
see Hardy, Healthy, 
Thriving. 



W 



Wan. 



Warm (Verb) — The word 
44 warm" in Warwick- 
shire means to beat with 
a stick or club. 



Wash out (Verb) — see 
Rinse. 



Wasp. 



WARWICKSHIRE. 



Kindle. 

Mufflin — I'm as mufflin as 
the babe unborn=I'm 
as useless as a baby. 



As, As or That— (with the 
repetition of the adjective) 
— It's as hot as hot=It's 
very hot. Or, I'm that 
bad in my innards=I'm 
suffering very much in- 
ternally. 



Tageous. 



Frem — Your plants do look 
frem = Your plants look 
hardy (or vigorous). 



Wanny — How wanny her 
looks = How pale (or 
wan or ill) she looks. 

Hot, Chill — I hot it = 
I warmed it over the 
fire. I chilled a drop of 
milk = I warmed (i. e. 
took the cold off) a drop 
of milk. 



Swill — I will swill 
will wash it out. 

Waps. 



it=I 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. \\\ 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



PLAYS. 



112 



VEX US AXD ADOXIS. 



VERNACULAR. 



WARWICKSHIRE. 



Waste (to waste time) — see i Mess — She might as lief 
Idle, Loiter. be at school, she's only 

messing about home = 
She's only wasting her 
time at home. 



Watch to, (Verb). 



Weak-lunged (delicate in 
the lungs). 



Weed (Verb). 



W T eeds — see Fumaria. 



Well. 



Wet through. 



Wheelhorse — The horse 
that does most of the 
work. 

Whim — see ^Notions. 



Tend — He's gone bird 
tending=He has gone 
to watch the birds (not 
peculiar to Warwick- 
shire.) 

Tisiky. 



Paddle — Especially when 
using a long, narrow 
spade or " spud " — 
Paddle the gardens 
W r eed the garden. 

Kecks — Thaay be kecks= 
Those are weeds. 

Lusty — He's as lusty as 
lusty = He's perfectly 
well. 

Watched — He was watched 
= He was wet through. 

Tiller. 



Fad, Megrims — Her's al- 
ways as full o' her fads = 
She's always full of 
whims or notions. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. H3 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



PLAYS. 



Perhaps in this sense in 
Lear I, i, 119 : He that 
makes his generation 
messes to gorge his ap- 
petite. 

Good angels tend thee ! — 
Richard III, IV, i, 93. 



A good babe, lusty and 
like to live, Winter's 
Tale, II, ii, 27. 



114 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 



WARWICKSHIRE. 



Whip — see Beat, Thrash. Warm — I'll warm ye=I'll 

beat (or thrash or whip) 
you. 

White Clover. Honey Stalk — (Also in 

Sussex dialect, L.) 



Who. 



Whore. 



Wicked — see Mischievous, 
Troublesome. 

Wife. 



Wilful. 

Wild Apple- 
pie. 



-see Sour Ap- 



Willing — see Acquiescent. 



Willing (in the sense of 
anxious to assist or co- 



operate.) 



As — There be those as 
know= There are those 
who know. 

Doxy. (Also in several 
other dialects, H.) 



Tageous. 



Old 'ooman. 
Masterful. 

Pomewater — (Given by H. 
without localization, an- 
other species called Ap- 
ple John is mentioned by 
H. as belonging to the 
Eastern countries, L.) 

Agreeable — I'm agreeable 
to that^I am willing to 
do that. 

Cunning — Anybody ud be 
cunning to do anything 
for you = Any body 
would be willing to help 
you. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. H5 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



PLAYS. 



Than baits to fish, or honey 
stalks to sheep, Titus 
Andronicus, IV, iv. 



Said by Schmitt and others 
to be used in this sense 
in Winter's Tale, IV, 
iii, 2. 



Ripe as apomewater,Z<?^j 
Labour's Lost, IV, ii. 



116 VENUS AXD ADOXIS. 


VERNACULAR. 


1 

WARWICKSHIRE. 


Willingly. 

Willow. 

Wing (of a house — see Ad- 
dition, Extension, Shed.) 


Lief — I'd lief go = I'd wil- 
lingly go. (L. denies 
that this is peculiar to 
any one English dialect.) 

Withy. 

Lean to. 


With (accompanying). 


Along of — Go along of 
father = Go with your 
father. 


Withered. 


Wizen. 


Witless — As by birth, dis- 
tinguished from dunce or 
fool (which see). 


Sorry — He's a sorry fellow 
= He's half witted, or 
of no account. 


Windy. 


Hurden — It's h u r d e n 
weather=Its very windy 



Woman. 

Wood. 

W T ood — A piece of wood- 
land, especially when 
small in extent. 

Woodlands — A piece larger 
in extent than the fore- 
going. 

Woodpecker, especially the 
green variety. 

Woolen Cap. 



weather. 
Ooman. 
Ood (uod). 
Spinney. 



Holt. 



Hickle (also written Hick- 
wall). 

Statue Cap — The cap worn 
by Act of 1 5 71 to en- 
courage woolen manu- 
facture, whence any cap 
made of woolen, or wool- 
like material. (Also in 
other dialects, L.) 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. \Yl 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



Love's Labour's Lost, V, ii. 



118 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 



Worn Out — see Fatigued. 

Worry, as a child its moth- 
er (Verb) — see Tease. 

Worth, Worthy— Adject- 
ive, and adverb, worth- 
illy. 



Would — (Auxiliary Verb). 

Wren — The female of any 
bird. 

Wrongly, Improperly — ad- 
jective or adverb. 



WARWICKSHIRE. 



Yearling — Especially of 
sheep. 



Forwearied. (Also in sev- 
eral other dialects, H.) 

Mummock — The child do 
mummock me so=The 
child worries me. 

Account — He bean't o' ac- 
count=He is not worth 
anything. He don't do 
o' any account = He 
doesn't act worthily. 

Ood. 

Jenny. 

Out of — To call a man out 
of his name — To call 
him by his wrong name. 
To name him improperly.. 



Yes. 



Teg — In the plural the 
word is Eanings, though 
properly Eaneings are 
the very young lambs, or 
lambs just dropped. 
(Also in Sussex and sev- 
eral other dialects, H.) 

Ah—Yea. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. H9 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



PLAYS. 



Forwearied in this action. 
— King John, II, i, 233. 



I have forgot my part, and 
I am out, Coriolanus, V, 
iii, 41. If I cannot re- 
cover your niece I am a 
foul ways out, Twelfth 
Night, II, iii, 201. Your 
hand is out, Loves Lab- 
our's Lost, IV, i, 135. 



That all the Earlings which 
were streaked and pied, 
Merchant of Venice, I, 



120 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



VERNACULAR. 



WARWICKSHIRE. 



Yoke (for cattle). 

Yonder. 
You. 



Yours. 



Bow — (Also in several 
other dialects, H.) 

Yon. 

Thee, or Thou — Thee'st 
it (or thou'st it) = You 
have it, or, You are the 
one. 

Yourn. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 121 



VENUS AND ADONIS. 



As the ox has his bow, As 
You Like It, III, iii, 70. 



PART III. 



THE PUZZLE, 



It thus appears : 

First. — That there is and was a Warwick- 
shire dialect. 

Second. — That this dialect occurs in every 
one of the admitted Shakespeare Plays. s 

Third. — That a specimen of this dialect ap- 
pears to occur in the poem, " Venus and Ad- 
onis/' in but one single instance ; that is to 
say, less than in any other work with which 
William Shakespeare's name is associated (ex- 
cept, perhaps, the Lucrece — which is inten- 
tionally left at this time unexamined). 

But — as to proposition Second — we have 
now to demonstrate: (i) That this Warwick- 
shire dialect does not occur in the plays to 
the exclusion of other dialects ; and — as to 
proposition Third — that (ii) the single instance 
in which Warwickshire dialect apparently 
occurs in the poem, is apparent only ; the 
word apparently local being actually not only 
not exclusively Warwickshire, but a corruption 
traceable to a Latin original. 



124 VENUS AND A DON IS. 



I. A late writer in the Atlantic Monthly \ 
says :* 

"A glance through almost any of the plays will 
convince the reader that the poet had not only an ex- 
tensive familiarity with, but a partiality for, words in 
provincial use in these (the northern and border) 
countries. Such words as the following : — greet (to cry 
or weep), sag (to hang down), skive (a slice), sliver 
(a noun, a small branch, and verb, to tear off), neb (the 
beak), brock (a badger), biggen (a night-cap), pick (to 
pitch or throw), scale (to spread, as manure), side (ad- 
jective, wide loose), clean (adverb, entirely), leather- 
coats (apples), clap (to pat or tap), chare (a job of work), 
Jlapjack (a pan-cake), — and many others, are terms 
' familiar in the mouth as household words ' in the 
North of England." * * * 

Take again "the common adverb soon. In such 
passages as the following, — ' Soon at five o'clock I'll 
meet with you,' (Com. of Err., I. ii. 26); 'Soon at 
supper shalt thou see Lorenzo,' (Mer. of Ven. II. iii. 
5); 'Come to me soon at after supper,' (Rich. III., 
IV. iii. 31); ' You shall bear the burden soon at 
night,' (Rom. and Jul., II. v. 78); 'We'll have a 
posset for 't soon at night,' (Merry Wives, I. iv. 8), 
and a dozen more, it is evident from the context that 
1 soon ' cannot have its common meaning of * in a 
short time.' Antipholus bids his servant go to 
the inn. 

44 The Centaur, where we host, 
And sta}'- there, Dromio, till I come to thee ; 
Within this hour it will be dinner time." 



He then invites his friend, the First Merchant, to 
dinner : — 

41 What, will you walk with me about the town, 
And then go to my inn, and dine with me ? " 

♦Boston, December, 1S81. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 125 
To which the Merchant replies : — 

u I am invited, sir, to certain merchants, 
Of whom I hope to make much benefit ; 
I crave your pardon. Soon at five o'clock. 
Please you, I'll meet with you upon the mart, 
And afterward consort you till bed-time." 

Now, bearing in mind that noon is the universal din- 
ner-hour in Shakespeare, six hours must intervene ere 
they meet again, which could hardly be called M soon." 
An examination of the other passages will present the 
same inconsistency. 

The fact is that i ' soon " in these passages is a pure 
provincialism. Mr. Halliwell, in his Dictionary of 
Archaic and Provincial Words, tells us that in the 
West of England the word still signifies " evening ; " 
and Gil, a contemporary of Shakespeare, a head 
master of St. Paul's School, declares that the use of 
4 'soon "as an adverb, in the familiar sense of "be- 
times," "by and by," or "quickly," had, when he 
wrote, been eclipsed with most men by an acceptation 
restricted to "night-fall." 

* -x- * * ^he word "fettle" is another pure 
Northern provincialism, meaning to get ready, prepa?-e, 
dress one's self. Many a time have I been told by my 
father "to fettle myself and go to school," " fettle up 
for church," etc. It is used both as an active and a 
neuter verb ; and Shakespeare has given it its exact 
signification in Romeo and Juliet, III. v. 154: — 

" But fettle your fine joints 'gainst Thursday next, 
To go with Paris to Saint Peter's Church. 

The very singular word " pheeze " occurs twice in 
Shakespeare, and has bothered the commentators ex- 
ceedingly ; some explaining it = to beat, others = to 
drive. In the North of England they have an old word 
pronounced/y£tf£<?, meaning generally to make an impres- 
sion upon, to arouse, stir up. It is commonly used in such 
expressions as "I called the man a fool, but it never 
pkazed Yiirn" " I hit the door with all my might, but 
couldn't phaze it." In Taming of the Shrew, (Ind.; i. 
1), Sly says to the hostess, " VWpheeze you, in faith," 



126 VENUS AND ADONIS. 

that is, I'll stir you up, I'll startle you ; and in Tro. 
and Cres., (II. iii. 215), Ajax says, "An a' be proud 
with me, I'll pheeze his pride," meaning, I'll make an 
impression on him, I'll bring dow?i his pride. 

Another Northern peculiarity is the use of the term 
wife for a woman in general, without any reference to 
the conjugal relation, in the same way that fem??ie in 
French and frau in German are occasionally used. 
The Saxon is wif, mulier, femina ; Bede uses wif-cild 
for a female infant. In Henry V. (Act V., chorus), 
we have — 

" Behold the English beach 
Pales in the flood with men, with wives \ with boys." 

Where "wives" is surely not confined to married 
women, but includes women of all ages and relations. 
* * * In Diana's speech in All's Well (IV. ii. 74): 

" Since Frenchmen are so braid 

Marry that will — I'll live and die a maid." 

Here "braid" is evidently derived from the Scotch 
braid, but has a more comprehensive meaning than 
our broad, applied to both language and actions, 
oftener to the latter. Impudent comes fairly near to 
to it, but is not quite forcible enough, while lustful 'is 
perhaps in the other extreme. A man was said to be 
"braid" whose behavior among women was auda- 
ciously gross or insulting, or who had a noted character 
for making improper advances, or for taking saucy 
liberties. I recall hearing such expressions as these : 
"John, you munnot be sae braid, noo," or, "He's 
far ower braid to keep my company." The word 
"braided," however, is no relative of "braid. ""Braided" 
was always a word applied to goods or wares, and 
meant dirty, tiunbled, crumpled up. Soiled or damp 
clothing, carelessly put away, was said to come out 
braided ; that is, in braids, wrinkled, or creased. It 
was applied also to cheap or second-hand articles, 
especially of haberdashery. It will be remembered 
that the shepherd's son, in Winter's Tale (IV. iv. 204), 
asks if Autolycus has any " unbraided wares ;" gener- 



A STUD Y IN WAR WICKSHIRE DIA L ECT. 127 

ally supposed a press error for " embroidered wares," 
which is the reading of Collier's Corrected Folio of 
1632. But I have never been able to divest myself 
of the impression that he rather means any new, fresh, 
unsoiled wares, — wares that are i.ice and untumbled, 
and not second-hand goods. 

In Shakespeareana *Mr. J. N. Langlin 
(from whom we have obtained much data as 
ot the concurrence of Warwickshire expres- 
sions in other English dialects in the follow- 
ing table), has pointed out the examples of 
Hallamshire dialect in the plays. 

Breeds with — to resemble (Meas. for Meas.) — 

" She speaks 
And 'tis such sense that my sense breeds with it." 

Among Yorkshire peasantry, to breed with, or to 
breed of, is constantly used for "resemble;" 
thus: "She breeds of her mother, her uncle," 
etc. Sometimes pronounced braid. 

Bar — to prohibit, exclude, forbid. In King John 
(III. i.) we have — 

*' When law can do no right 
Let it be lawful that law bar no wrong. 

Barm— yeast (Mid. N. D., II. i.) : 

" And sometimes make the drink to bear no barm" 

A common word in Essex and Eastern counties. 
Brag — to boast (Rom. and Jul. I. v.) : 

u Verona brags of him." 

Chuck — a term of endearment (Macbeth III. ii.): 

11 Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck." 

♦Philadelphia, May, 1884. 



128 VENUS AND ADONIS. 

Cower — to cower down, to be abashed (2 Hen. VI. 
III. ii.): 

" No splitting rocks cowered in the sinking sand." 

Grime — make black : 

" My face I'll grime with filth." — Lear II. iii. 

Heps or Hips — pods of the dog-rose {Tim. of Ath. y 
IV, iii, 398) : 

" The oaks bear mast : the briars scarlet kips." 

Make the door, i. e., fasten it — pronounced mack 
(Com. of Errors, III. ii.): 

" And doubts not, sir, but she will make excuse 

Why at this time the doors are inade against you." 

Crack — to boast (Love s Lab., IV. i.): 

11 And Ethiops of their sweet complection crack." 

Favour — to lesemble (Jul. Cces., I. iii.): 

" And the complection of the element 

It favours like the work we have in hand." 

Gates - a sort of expletive, meaning manner, way 
(Twelfth Night, V. i.): 

"***#**# If he had not been in drink he would 
have tickled you other gates than he did." 

So, too, in King Lear, Edgar says : ' ' Go your 
gate." "Get your gate" — a kind of friendly 
dismissal. " Go your way " is a very common ex- 
pression in Yorkshire. Where is the Yorkshire 
child who has not been told to " get out of my 
gate ! " 

Mammocks — small pieces of anything. Shakes- 
peare has it a verb (Cor. I. iii.): 

41 He did so set his teeth and tear it !— O, I warrant how he 
mammocked it." 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 129 

Scotch — to strike with a thin stick. 

"■ We have scotched the snake, not killed it." — Macbeth. 

Stalled — suspected {Jul. Cces., IV. i.): 

" Which out of use, and stalledhy other men, 
Begins his fashion." 

Tickle — tottering, easily overturned {Meas. for 
Meas., I. iii.): 

it $ # * * Thy head stands so tickle on thy shoulders, 
that a milkmaid, if she be in love, may sigh it off." 

II. — The single entry we have been able to 
make in the " Venus and Adonis" column of 
part II, is the expression "The Urchin- 
snouted Boar," (i. e., the boar with a snout 
like a hedge hog.) But " Urchin," with this 
meaning, is certainly as old as the French- 
English glossary of Palsgrave, the tutor of 
Mary, sister of Henry VIII. (" Disclar- 
cessement de la Lange Francoise-Angloys.) 
It occurs (spelled Urchon) in the early Eng- 
lish Psalter (Psalm CIII, v. 18,) and is traced 
by Skeat to a source even earlier than either, 
viz : the latin eircius. Mr. Langlin (in his 
paper on the " Provincialisms of Shakes- 
peare" in Shakespeareanafor May, 1884,) says 
that " urchin" occurs in every English dia- 
lect of which he can find a trace, in the 
sense of "hedgehog." Curiously enough, 
however, the word is only used in the Plays, 
in the " Merry Wives of Windsor," (like ur- 
chins, ouphes and fairies, IV., iv. 49), the 
only actual Warwickshire play in the works, 
and, again, in Titus Andronicus (II, iii, 101), 
in the sense of a "goblin" or "sprite," a usage 



1 30 VENUS AND A DON IS. 

unknown not only in Warwickshire, but — so far 
as Skeat and other English etymologists have 
been able to discover — in any other dialect. 
Nor can it be said that, in treating the clas- 
sical theme, no opportunity occured for em- 
ployment of words and idioms peculiar to 
local dialects ; the growth of the necessity in 
the expression of rustic wants and emergen- 
cies only. The fact is exactly in this instance 
the reverse. For example : In line 657, 
Venus calls jealousy a "carrytale," that is, a 
gossip or telltale. There happen to be (as we 
see from our table) two Warwickshire words, 
"chatterer" and "pickthanks," for this de- 
scriptive. The latter is used in the plays in 
I, Henry VI., iii., 2, while in Love's Labors 
Lost (V., ii., 464,) it appears as " mumble 
news." But for the picturesque compound 
"carrytale," certainly no recourse to any dia- 
lect was had. And again — whenever the dia- 
lect consists in the usage rather than the form 
of the word — the word is used in the plays, 
sometimes in the common and sometimes in 
the local sense ; but in the poem, always in 
the proper and usual sense. For example : 
We have seen what " braid" and " braided " 
mean in the plays. But in Venus and Adonis 
we have the root as we employ it to-day : 
" His ears up-pricked — his braided, hanging 
mane." To proceed : In the plays we have 
the word "gossip" continually, sometimes in 
the sense of a "God parent," (which is War- 
wickshire and other provincial usage,) and 
sometimes in the ordinary sense, to express 



AS TUB Y IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 131 

which a Warwickshire man would have said 
"pickthanks" or " chatterer." < The word 
"chill," which, in Warwickshire, means to 
warm, to take the chill off of, is used in that 
sense once ("As You Like It, IV., v., 56,) but 
everywhere else in its ordinary sense of to 
touch with frost, or to cool. Again, any mus- 
ical instrument is called in Warwickshire, " a 
music," and here in the single play of Hamlet, 
we find it so used (Let him ply his music, II., i., 
83, )while everywhere else the word has its usu- 
al meaning. Side by side in Macbeth we find 
the word " lodged " used in its vernacular 
meaning of providing with sleeping quarters 
(there be two lodged together, II., ii., 26,) and 
in the Warwickshire sense of corn that a 
heavy storm has ruined. (Though bladed 
corn be lodged, IV, i, 55.) Not to multiply 
instances, which the reader can select for 
himself from Mrs. Clarke's concordance,or (still 
more accurately) from Dr. Schmitt's "Shake- 
speare Lexicon" — note that in Henry VIII, 
" stomach" is used in the sense of a masterful, 
or overbearing disposition, as in Warwick- 
shire to-day; as the name of the proper di- 
gestive organ ; again in the sense of appetite ; 
and, yet again, to mean valor or spirit, just as 
in Richard III the word "urge" occurs side 
by side in its good old English meaning and 
anon in its present Warwickshire sense of to 
irritate, annoy or tease ; and never are the 
above instances of double usage by way of 
a pun or play upon the words themselves. 
It further appears that there are in this 



132 VENUS AND ADONIS. 

entire poem of eleven hundred and ninety- 
four verses, scarcely a score of words, to com- 
prehend which even to most ordinary English 
scholars of to-day would need a lexicon. But 
on examining even these words, it will be 
found, precisely as in the case of the word 
"urchin," that they have a source entirely 
outside of Warwickshire or any other one 
dialect — are, in fact, early English words, 
mostly classical ; never in any sense local or 
sectional. The following schedule renders 
this apparent. 

Banning (326) — Cursing. The word is used in this 
sense in Lucrece, line 1460, 2d 
Henry, VI, 4, 25, and is so used by 
Gower, Confessio Amatis, (1325,) ii, 
96, Layamon, (1180,) ii, 497, and is 
good middle English. 
Bate-Breeding (V55) — In the sense of a stirrer up of 
strife. Bate in the sense of 
strife — is middle English — oc- 
curs in the Coventry Mysteries, 
p. 12, and is the origin of our 
word debate. 
Billing (366) — Is the act of birds putting their bills 
together. It is impossible to trace it 
further back than Laymon, who wrote, 
perhaps, about 11 80. 
Clepes (995) — She clepes — she calls him — in its various 
forms of clepe, to call, yclept, called, 
named, is so old that it was even prac- 
tically obsolete before Shakespeare's 
time, or at least pedantic. 
Coasteth (870) — To coast — to grope one's way — a beau- 
tiful metaphor — to sale or steer as by 
sounds or lights on a coast : to move, as a 
ship does in the dark — gropingly. Venus 
guides herself by the sound. 



A S TUD V IN WA R W1CKSHIRE DIA LECT. 133 

Anon she hears them chant it lustily, 

And all in haste she coasteth to the cry. 

A boy, Stratford born, whose first journey 

was to London, would know nothing of 

the sea coast. 

Combustions (1162) — A good, though not a common 

English word. 

Crooked (134) — Had, long before Shakespeare's day, 
assumed the meaning, which is now 
reappearing, i. e., out of the ordinary — 
ill-favored, dishonest, ugly in person or 
character, — is of Scandinavian or Celtic 
origin. 
Divedapper (86) — A dab, chick, a species of greve, a 
small bird common all over Eng- 
land, sometimes printed dapper ; 
the only dialectic form is the Lin- 
colnshire "dop-chicken." 
Flap-mouthed (920) — Long lipped — like a dog — as old 
as Piers Plowman, (B., vi, 187, 
1396.) 
Fry (526) — Meaning the spawn of fishes, is Scandi- 
navian. " To the end of the fri mi bliss- 
ing graunt i." To thee, and to thy seed, I 
grant my blessing. — WycklifTe's bible. 
Jennet (260) — Comes from the Spanish, and is used 

repeatedly in the plays. 
Lure (1027) — In the sense of decoy or call. Used in 
Chaucer, Canterbury, 17,021. Middle 
English. 

Musits (683) — Musit is a hole in a hedge. It comes 
from the French musser, to hide, con- 
ceal, and is nowhere a local word. 
Nuzzling (11 1 5) — To root, or poke with the nose, as a 
hog roots. Older than Shakespeare 
and not yet obsolete. 
O'er strawed (1143) — Overstrewn. In Anglo-Saxon 
means to put in order. Used in 
Palsgreave ; also in the plays 
frequently. 



134 VENUS AND ADONIS. 

Rank (71) — A poetical use of the word, applying it 

to a river overflowing its banks. 
Scud (301) — In the sense of a storm, or a gust of wind. 
This is an English provincial (though not 
a Warwickshire) word. In the sense used 
in the plays, to carry, or run along. It is 
of Scandinavian origin. 
Teen (808) — Used by Chaucer in Canterbury Tales, 
3108. Anglo-Saxon in its oldest form. 
In Icelandic it appears as tjon, means sor- 
row or woe. 
Trim (1079) — "Of colors trim." To apply this word 
(meaning of course neat) to colors is a 
poetical, not a local usage. 
Unkind (204) — A poetical use — she died unkind, that 

is, died a virgin — original here. 
Wat (697) — Is a familiar term for a hare ; similar to 
Tom for a cat, Billy for a goat, Ned for 
an ass, etc. In old English it was spelled 
wot. It occurs in Fletcher, thus : Once 
concluded, out the teasers run all in full 
cry and speed, til Wat's undone. But 
strange to say, it does not appear to 
linger, if it ever was used, in Warwick- 
shire. 

In line 870 occurs a remarkably beautiful 
analogy, on which alone an essay might be 
written. The line runs, "And all in haste she 
coasteth to the cry." 

Here Venus is represented as catching 
the cry of the hunt in the distance, and en- 
deavoring to come up with it guided by her 
ear alone. To express this, the poet selects 
a word which brings up the image of a ship 
steering along a coast, blindly, as if fog- 
bound ; groping its way by means of signs or 
sounds on shore. Is it possible that a poet, 
not a sea-faring man, nor himself familiar 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 135 

with a sea coast or the habits of mariners, 
whose whole life-time had been passed in an 
interior county, should have employed this 
figure ? The word coasteth, in this analogy, 
cannot be found in English literature earlier 
than the poem, and probably it has never 
been used elsewhere from that day to this, ex- 
cept in Henry VIII, supposed to have been 
written fifteen years later (The king in this 
perceiveth him, how he coasts and hedges his 
own way — III, ii, 38). Now Henry VIII is 
the play which Spedding, Gervinfus, Fleay, 
Ingram, Furnivall and Dowden think was 
written in great part by Fletcher. But scene 
2 of act III, where the above lines occur, is 
by nearly all of these gentlemen assigned to 
Shakespeare. 

But as to even what unmistakable traces of 
Warwickshire the plays present — the com- 
mentators are unable to agiee. While, for 
example, Mr. King urges that the use of 
u old" for frequent, by the drunken porter 
in Macbeth, proves the Shakespearean au- 
thorship of the porter's soliloquy, Cole- 
ridge* dismisses the whole soliloquy as 
containing "not one syllable" of Shake- 
speare." " The low soliloquy of the porter," 
says Coleridge, "and his few speeches after- 
wards, I believe to have been written for the 
mob by some other hand, perhaps with Shake- 
speare's consent, and finding it take, he — 
with the remaining ink of a pen otherwise 
employed — just interpolated the words, I'll 
devil porter it no further ; I had thought to 

* Literary Remains, ii, 246-7. 



136 VENUS AND ADONIS. 

let in some of all professions that go the prim- 
rose way to the everlasting bonfire. Ho\vever,of 
the rest not one syllable has the ever-present 
being of Shakespeare." But he fails to notice 
the almost literal repetition of the sentiment in 
All's Well that Ends Well (IV, v,5 4 ). " They'll 
be for the flowery way that leads to the 
broad gate and the great fire." 

Of course, dialect is used almost wholly 
by the low comedy characters of the plays, 
and in the comic situations. And, we 
must remember, that while the sources of the 
plot of almost every play is known, and the 
original of many of the speeches, in HolJings- 
head and Plutarch and elsewhere, yet, of these 
comic situations, speeches, dialogues and per- 
sonages, no originals can be unearthed by the 
most indefatigable commentator. Whatever 
else the dramatic writer borrowed ; these — so 
far as any traces exist — we know to have 
been his own. Yet in these very plays, side 
by side with the patois of the clowns and 
wenches, the English language rose to flights, 
the sublimity of which it was but once more 
— in the King James' version of the Scrip- 
tures — to attain. But to return to the Venus 
and Adonis, which preceded all these. In stan- 
zas 56, 86, 87, and 122, the author employs sim- 
ilies drawn from legal principles and the con- 
veyancer's craft. Had William Shakespeare 
been a lawyer or a lawyer's clerk in 
Stratford, before ever seeing London ? 
Again, in stanza 60, the author uses 
similjes drawn from stage usages. Had Wil- 
liam Shakespeare been connected with mat- 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 137 

ters theatrical in Stratford, and before he 
ever saw London ? 

Among the scholars and writers of Eliza- 
beth's day there might have been a lack of 
confidence in the power and strength or the 
perpetuity of the English language. Bacon, 
for one, lived and died disbelieving in his 
mother tongue. He was constantly express- 
ing his distrust in it. He went to the utterly 
superfluous expense of employing experts to 
put his ponderous works into Latin, in-order 
that " the next ages " might read them. But 
the writer of the Shakespearean plays had no 
lack of confidence in or distrust of the ver- 
nacular. He was not only a purist himself, 
but he used the plays as a means of convict- 
ing, at least of ridiculing — the absurdities, 
affectations and errors of his countrymen. 
The bombastic speeches of Pistol were in- 
serted to burlesque the fustain of his contem- 
poraries. The dialogues of the hard-handed 
men of Athens, in the Midsummer Night's 
Dream interlude,were aimed at the Alliterative 
Burchards; and every where — in such charac- 
ters as Holofernes, Malvolio, Armado, and 
dozens of others, — he raked fore and aft the 
absurdities and eccentricities of the Euphuists; 
In Beatrice's speech we see him poking fun 
at the H. displacement.* 

* The pith of Beatrice's answer to Margaret's, 
11 For a hawk, a horse or a husband." 
" For the letter that begins them all, — H." 
undoubtedly referred to the prnounciation of the word 
* i ache " as H or aitch. But there would have been 
no opportunity for it, had not " the H malady" been, 
then as now, proverbial, 



1 38 VENUS A ND A DONIS. 

As to pronunciation : " In the Warwick- 
shire dialect, " says George Eliot," the vowel 
always has a double sound, the y sometimes 
present, sometimes not : either aal or yaal. 
Hithe?- not heard except in " c " moother 
addressed to horses. Thou never heard. 
In general the 2d person singular not used 
in Warwickshire, except occasionally to 
young members of a family, and then 
always in the form of thee — that is " ee" 
For the emphatic nominative — yo like 
the Lancashire. For the accusative, yer 
without any sound of the r. The de- 
monstrative those never heard among the 
common people (unless when caught by in- 
fection from the parson, etc.) self pronounced 
sen. The/ never heard in of, nor the n in 
in. Notj^rbut ear. On the other hand, 
with the usual " compensation " head is pro- 
nounced yead. 

A gallows little chap as e'er ye see, 
Here's to you, master. 
Saam to yo.* 

And she might have added that ITs were 
misplaced then as now, and Vs and W*s 
were also transposed, though more frequent- 
ly in the city of London than elsewhere. 
But as we do not know how Elizabethans 
pronounced " Venus and Adonis " we need 
go no further into that, unless to find a vowel 

*George Eliot's Life. Edited by J. W. Cross, New 
York, Harper & Bros., iii — 219. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 139 

sound or a quantity exclusively and pecu- 
liarly of Warwickshire. 

Of course " Venus and Adonis " might 
have been written in the Warwickshire di- 
alect by a man not Warwickshire born 
and bred. But would the converse pro- 
position be true ? Could " Venus and 
Adonis" — as we have it — have been writ- 
ten by one Warwickshire born and bred 
in the reign of Elizabeth, who had not been 
first qualified by drill in the courtly English 
in which we happen to find that poem written? 

A man of education and culture; one prac- 
tised in English composition may forge the 
style of a letterless rustic. Thackeray, in his 
" Yellowplush Papers " and Lowell in his 
" Bigllow Papers," has done it ; and so have 
Charles Dickens and hundreds of others. 
But could a letterless clown forge the style of 
a gentleman of culture ? Tennyson could 
write " The Northern Farmer " in Lincoln- 
shire dialect. But could a Lincolnshire far- 
mer, who knew nothing of any vernacular 
except the Lincolnshire, have written the 
" Princess," or " Maud, or "In Memoriam "? 
Or could an actual flunkey, in the Yellowplush 
grade and station, have written " Vanity Fair " 
or " Pendennis ?" And if they could have 
done it after training — could they have done 
it without the opportunity for training? A 
great many wise and eminent people no doubt, 
may have left Warwickshire in mid-England 
for London in Elizabeth's day, earlier than 
even the period of posts or coach roads. Did 



140 VENUS AND ADONIS. 

many learned men journey into Warwickshire 
to carry the culture of the court there ? 

The lover and worshipper of Shakespeare — 
and who is not his lover and his worshipper ? — 
is apt to resent any suggestion or hint as to a 
possible want in his — William Shakespeare's 
— equipment. But it was not certainly Wil- 
liam Shakespeare's fault that he was deprived 
of resources and opportunities, not only not 
at hand — but not to arrive until some centu- 
ries after his funeral. The best school to 
which he could have been sent — and the only 
one which his biographers have ever been 
able to assign him — was a grammar school in 
Stratford; but the idea of anybody being 
taught English Grammar — let alone the Eng- 
lish language — in an English grammar school 
in those days is utterly inconceivable 
There was no such branch, and mighty little 
of anything in its place, except birchen rods, 
the Church catechism, the Criss Crow Row 
and a few superfluous Latin declensions out 
of Lily's Accidence. 

In the only Shakespeare play whose scene 
is laid in Warwickshire there happens to be 
a travesty upon the method of instruction 
pursued in these very Elizabethan " Grammar 
Schools." Here it is : 

Master. — Come hither, William, hold up your head. 
Come, William, how many numbers is in nouns? 
William. — Two. 
M.— What is fair, William ? 
W.—Pulcher. 

M. — What is lapis, William ? 
W.— A Stone. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 141 

M. — And what is a stone ? 

W.— A pebble. 

M. — No, it is lapis. I pray you remember in your 
prain. 

W. — Lapis. 

M. — That is good, William. What is he, William, 
that does lend articles ? 

W. — Articles are borrowed of the pronoun, and be 
thus declined : Singulariter nominitavo, hie, haec, 
hoc. 

M. — Nominitavo hig, hag, hog ; pray you, mark, 
genitivo hugus. Well, what is your accusative case ? 

W. — Accusatavo, hinc. 

M. — I pray you have your remembrance, child. Ac- 
cusatavo: hing, hang, hog. What is the vocative case, 
William ? 

W. — O; vocative, o. 

M. — Remember, William, focative is caret. What 
is your genitive case plural, William ? 

W. — Genitive case? 

M.— Ay. 

W. — Genitive : horum, harum, horum. 

M. — Show me now, William, some declensions of 
your pronouns. 

W. — Forsooth, I have forgot. 

M. — It is qui, quae, quod ; if you forget your quis 
and your quaes and your quods, you must be preeches.* 

Is this a wanton and utterly unfounded at- 
tack upon a worthy, honorable and conscien- 
tious profession and an excellent educational 
system, or the verbatim report of an eye wit- 
ness ? Let us see. There is no exactly con- 
temporary testimony ; but in 1634 the author 
of the " Compleate Gentleman " says that a 
country school teacher "by no entreaty would 
teach any scholar farther than his (the schol- 
ar's) father had learned before him. His 

*" Merry Wives of Windsor," Act iv., Scene I. 



142 VENUS AND ADONIS. 

reason was that they would otherwise prove 
saucy rogues and control their fathers." In 
177 1, when Shakespeare had been dead a 
century and a half, John Britton, who had 
attended a provincial grammar school in 
Wilts, says that the pedagogue was wont to 
teach the "Criss Cross Row," or alphabet, as 
follows : 

Teacher. — Commether, Billy Chubb, an' breng the 
horren book. Ge ma the vester in tha wendow, you, 
Pat Came. Wha ! be a sleepid ! I'll waken ye ! Now, 
Billy, there's a good bwoy, ston still there, an' min 
whan I da point na ! Criss cross girta little ABC. 
That is right, Billy. You'll soon learn criss cross row; 
you'll soon avergit Bobby Jiffry ! You'll soon be a 
schollard ! A's a purty chubby bwoy. Lord love en ! 

It could not have been much better in Wil- 
liam Shakespeare's boyhood days than in 
1634 and 1771. Says Mr. Goadby : "It is 
evident that much schooling was impossible, 
for the necessary books did not exist. The 
horn-book, for teaching the alphabet, would 
almost exhaust the resources of any common 
day school that might exist in the towns and 
villages. The first English grammar was not 
published until 1586 *'\ Says Mr. Furnivall : 
"I think you would be safe in conceding that 
at such a school as Stratford, about 1570, 
there would be taught (1) an A B C book, for 
which a pupil teacher or ABCdarius is some- 
times mentioned as having a salary ; (2) a 
catechism in English and Latin, probably 

* "England of Shakespeare," p. 101. 



^ 



A S TUB Y IN WAR WICKS HIRE DIA LECT. 143 

Nowell's ; (3) the authorized Latin grammar, 
/, e^ Lily's, put out wilh a proclamation 
adapted to each king s reign ; (4) some easy- 
Latin construing book, such as Erasmus's 
i Colloquies,' Corderius's ' Colloquies, or Bap- 
tista Mantuanus,' and the familiar ' Cato,' or 
'Disticha de Moribus.' "* Says Halliwell 
Phillipps : u Unless the system of instruction 
(in Stratford grammar school) differed essen- 
tially from that pursued in other establish- 
ments of a similar character, his (Shake- 
speare's) knowledge of Latin was derived 
from two well-known books of the time — the 
1 Accidence ' and the ' Sentential Pueriles,' 
. . . a little manual ' containing a large 
collection of brief sentences, collected from 
a variety of authors, with a distinct selection 
of moral and religious paragraphs, the latter 
intended for the use of boys on Saint's days. 
. . . . Exclusive of bibles, church servi- 
ces, psalters, etc., there were certainly not 
more than two or three dozen books, if as 
many, in the whole town (Stratford-on-Avon.) 
The copy of the black letter English history, 
so often depicted as well thumbed by Shake- 
peare in his father's parlor never existed out 
of the imagination. "f 

But, even had there been books, it seems 
there were no schoolmasters in the days when 
young William went to school, who could 
have taught him what was necessary. Ascham, 

* " Int. to Leopold Shakespeare," p. 11. 
f "Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare," 3d ed. t 
PP. 55-57. 



144 * r ENUS A XD A DOXIS. 

who came a little earlier than Shakespeare, 
said such as were to be had, amounted to 
nothing, and " for the most so behave them- 
selves that their very name is hateful to the 
scholar, who trembleth at their coming, re- 
joiceth at their absence, and looketh him re- 
turned as a deadly enemy."* Milton (who 
came a little later) says their teaching was 
" mere babblement and notions, "f 

"Whereas they make one scholar they mar 
ten," says Peacham, who describes one coun- 
try specimen as whipping his boys on a cold 
winter morning " for no other purpose than 
to get himself into a heat. "J 

The conclusion being that a maximum of 
caning and a minimum of parrot-work on 
desultory Latin paradigms which, whether 
wrong or right, were of no consequence what- 
ever to anybody, was the village idea of a 
boy's education in England for long centu- 
ries, easily inclusive of the years within which 
William Shakespeare lived and died. The 
great scholars of those centuries either 
educated themselves, or by learned parents 
were guided to the sources of human intel- 
ligence and experience. At any rate they 
drew nothing out of the country gram- 
mar schools. In other words, the forc- 
ing systems of Mr. Wopsle's great-aunt, 
or of that eminent educator Wackford 

* Works. Bennet's Ed., p. 212. 
f Works. Symond's Ed , London. Bentley, 1806. 
Vol. in., p. 348. 

\ " Goadby's England of Shakespeare," p. 100. 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 145 

Squeers, senior, seem to have been, so far as 
the English branches are concerned — im- 
provements on the methods of rural peda- 
gogues in the sixteenth century. We are not 
advised whether or no the boys were taught 
to cipher, but if they were it probably ex- 
hausted their scientific course. At any rate, 
beyond the horn book, very little reading and 
writing could have been contemplated in a 
land where, from a time when the memory of 
man runneth not to the contrary, to the eighth 
year of George the Fourth, immunity from the 
penalty of felonies was granted to anyone 
who could make profert of those accomplish- 
ments.* 

But while there is not much of an argument 
to be drawn from the use of a language, 
idiom, dialect or patois, in a literary composi- 
tion, the absolute absence of any trace or sug- 
gestion of any of these may be worthy of very 
serious consideration indeed in searching for 
the nativity and vicinage of a writer. A 
linguist born and resident in France, for ex- 
ample, could hardly be demonstrated to be a 
modern Greek from an occasional or even a 
constant use of that speech in his books. 
But, supposing that, in the course of very 
voluminous writings, no trace or suspicion of 
a single French phrase, idiom, word, pecu- 
liarity, turn of expression, or tendency could 
be unearthed ? Would it be safer to conclude 
that he was or was not a Frenchman ? Again, 

* Benefit of clergy was only abolished in England 
by Act 8, Geo. IV,, ch. 28. 



146 VENUS AND ADONIS. 

even geniuses like Goethe or Tennyson might 
perhaps pause in their composition to choose 
a word that would scan in their prosody ; or 
between one that would rhyme and one that 
would not. Poetry has its artificial as well as 
its natural laws. And it is not, perhaps, too 
heroic or too bizarre to infer that so perfect a 
poem as " Venus and Adonis " was, as to its 
form, as well as its method and matter, con- 
sidered by its author. A London born poet, 
searching for a rhyme, might well — with all 
England's picturesque dialects before him — 
select a Yorkshire or a Warwickshire word as 
precisely to his need. Vidilicet Thomas Hood, 
in his " Miss Kilmansegg" : 

11 A load of treasure ? alas ! alas I 

Had her horse but been fed on English grass 
And shelter'd in Yorkshire Spinneys 
Had he scorn'd the sand with the desert Ass 
Or where the American whinnies " 

That was because — we will say — Mr. 
Hood happened to want a rhyme for Wk whin- 
nies." But, while nobodv would dream of 
trying to prove that Hood was Warwickshire 
or Yorkshire born because he used the word 
" spinneys," which we have seen is in both 
dialects; yet would it have been possible for 
him, had he been Warwickshire or Yorkshire 
born — in the course of his search for rhymes 
— never, in all he wrote, to have taken ad- 
vantage of a quantity, rhyme or vowel sound 
to which his ears had been habituated and his 
tongue attuned, by birth and heredity, or for 
an entire lifetime — of a single picturesque 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 147 

phrase, or word that was to him mother 
tongue ? Could he have cut loose, any more 
than could Burns, from the characteristic, 
the birthmark, the shibboleth, of his race 
and kind? If Burns was unable, after a 
metropolitan drill, to lose his native patois, 
is it perfectly likely that William Shakes- 
peare, a couple of centuries earlier in 
English history, could have done it ? 

If " Venus and Adonis " was written by 
William Shakespeare at all, certainly Mr. 
Richard Grant White is right in saying 
that it was written either in Warwick- 
shire or very soon after its author left that 
country for the great city in which he made 
his name and fortune, the city which to-day 
honors him as its most immortal citizen ! 
Did this country lad of eighteen or nine- 
teen, while getting his bread, at, as some say, 
the theatre doors by horse-holding (at any 
rate in some exceedingly humble employ- 
ment) manage at the same time to forget his 
Warwickshire dialect ? Whether he found 
teacher in the city or not, or whether he 
taught himself, we cannot tell. But the mar- 
vellous thing is, after all, that he should be 
conscious of his own linguistic disability. The 
rule is apt to be quite the other way. The 
dialect speaker sees keenly the absurdity of 
another man's patois, but is inclined to think 
himself speaking his own tong'ue in its class- 
ical purity, nor can he recognize his own 
solecisms in print. An exceedingly competent 
gentleman writing in the New York Evening 



148 VENUS AND ADONIS. 

Post* remarks : *' I have been assured by a 
" well educated Hoosier that the dialect in 
" Mr. Eggleston's Indiana novels had not the 
" slightest foundation in fact, and the assur- 
" ance was given in tones which to me were 
'* exactly represented by the printed page. 
" Conversely, to a Scotchman the written 
" dialect of Burns seems perfect, but to the 
" eye of an Englishman, who could not cor- 
" rect the impression by experience, this 
" written dialect would convey a very false 
" idea of the fact." But of course the answer 
to all these considerations is, simply, that 
the lad with whom we are dealing was Wil- 
liam Shakespeare, and no other. And to an- 
alyse a phenomenon and show wherein it was 
not normal and commonplace, is to deny that 
it is a phenomenon at all ! 

Whether the Shakespearean plays are the 
monographs of one man or the composite 
work of many, the order in which they were 
produced is equally immaterial ; and gentle- 
men who invent " chronologies," " periods," 
" orders " and " groups " for them are simply 
amusing themselves. If we possess Lord 
Tennyson's exquisite " Idylls of the King " 
in their completeness, whom does it concern, 
whether they were or were not composed con- 
secutively ? It would be like sitting down to 
Sancho Panza's banquet to be told we may 
not read Romeo and Juliet without first ab- 
sorbing The Two Gentlemen of Verona — or 

* February joth, 1885. 



1 08 



A STUDY IN WARWICKSHIRE DIALECT. 149 

must refrain from Hamlet until we have 
waded through those formidable — although 
now and then, exquisite — sonnets. But if we 
are to know anything at all about William 
Shakespeare, boy and man, the date and 
authorship of his Venus and Adonis is vastly 
important. If the foregoing pages contain 
anything worthy the name of Internal Evid- 
ence, or infer or suggest the existence of any 
evidence of any sort: in the absence of a better 
explanation of such evidence, would not the 
following conclusions be on the safe side ? 
viz.: 

I. — That the Shakespeare Works are a 
storehouse of Elizabethan English in all of its 
many varieties and variations, its dictions, 
vernaculars and dialects, from the most re- 
fined, splendid and courtly to its rudest and 
crudest; and, therefore, are more likely to be 
of composite origin than exclusively mono- 
graphs. 

II. — That the poem Venus and Adonis is 
apparently the monograph of a poet able, to 
confine himself to the most refined, most 
splendid and courtliest of these dictions — and 
to resist any temptation of vicinage, heredity 
or contemporary corruptions. 

III. — That, to quote the words of Mr. 
Halliwell Phillips, it is better " never to be 
too eertain of anything " in matters Shake- 
spearean. 

Read May 19th, 1885, and ordered printed. 



1 In brief, sir, study what you most affect." 

Taming of The Shrew, I. 



THE SHAKESPEARE SOCIETY 

OF NEW YORK. 

(Incorporated April 20TH, 1885.) 

INITIATION, $3.00. ANNTIAI DJ7JES, $2.00. 

LIFE MJEMBEBSHIP, $25.00. 

The Society is Liberal and Catholic, and welcomes 
members of all shades of opinion, who, without com- 
mitting themselves to any school, can heartily join its 
members in promoting the knowledge and study of the 
work of William Shakespeare and the Shakesperean 
and Elizabethan Drama. 

The Society proposes the reading of an original 
paper, monthly, with discussion thereof ; and to print 
such papers in pamphlet, to be furnished gratis to 
members not in arrears. 

The Library of Texts, and Works of Shakespearean 
History, Speculation, Criticism, etc., will be always 
open to members, or others upon the card of members. 

Contributions consisting of additions to the Library, 
of Books, Pamphlets, Extracts, Pictures, Statuary, etc., 
or funds for Library purposes, thankfully received. If 
sent from Europe, please mark parcels "for Presenta- 
tion to the Library of the New York Shakespeare So- 
ciety," (which entitles the Society to receive them duty 
free.) 

The Society will keep a bulletin list of the latest 
works in press or preparation, from which its library 
is to be augmented. Subjects for papers furnished and 
suggested subjects considered, on application to the 
President. 

Address all Letters of Inquiry and Remittances, 

JAMES E. REYNOLDS, Treas., 

68 Broadway. 









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